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The Kelimutu lakes, on the island of Flores   Indonesia is the largest island country in the world and has approximately 17,500 islands; it is no coincidence that here are the second and third largest islands on the planet, New Guinea, located in Oceania, and Borneo, the first shared with Papua New Guinea, the second with Brunei and Malaysia, but in both cases the largest section belongs to Indonesia.

   The first island in the ranking entirely Indonesian is Sumatra, the sixth largest island in the world; followed by Celebes and Java, also of quite considerable size, over 100,000 square kilometers, with Java hosting the capital Jakarta and being the most populous island on the planet, with about 147,000,000 inhabitants!

   The other islands, which are mainly part of the archipelago of the Lesser Sunda Islands and the Maluku Islands, are headed by Timor, which however is shared with another country, East Timor; among these we also find Bali, in fifteenth position, the most famous and touristic island of Indonesia.

   In all, there are 27 islands over 2,500 kmē, some of which are close to Sumatra or Java, others located much further east, including Yos Sudarso, which geographically is part of Oceania and not Asia.


Island Area (kmē)
Area (sq mi)
Province
New Guinea (1) 785,753 303,381 Papua, West Papua
Borneo (2) 743,330 287,001 Central Kalimantan, East Kalimantan, North Kalimantan,
South Kalimantan, West Kalimantan
Sumatra (3) 420,306 162,281 Aceh, Bengkulu, Jambi, Lampung, Riau,
North Sumatra, South Sumatra, West Sumatra
Celebes / Sulawesi (4) 174,600 67,413 Gorontalo, Central Sulawesi, North Sulawesi,
South Sulawesi, Southeast Sulawesi, West Sulawesi
Java (5) 129,439 49,977 Banten, Central Java, East Java, West Java,
Special Capital Region of Jakarta, Yogyakarta
Timor (6) 30,377 11,729 East Nusa Tenggara
Halmahera 17,780 6,865 North Maluku
Seram 17,100 6,602 Maluku
Sumbawa 14,386 5,554 West Nusa Tenggara
Flores 14,268 5,509 East Nusa Tenggara
Yos Sudarso 11,742 4,534 Papua
Bangka 11,413 4,407 Bangka Belitung Islands
Sumba 10,997 4,246 East Nusa Tenggara
Buru 9,505 3,670 Maluku
Bali 5,570 2,151 Bali
Lombok 4,692 1,812 West Nusa Tenggara
Belitung 4,478 1,729 Bangka Belitung Islands
Buton 4,408 1,702 Southeast Sulawesi
Madura 4,078 1,575 East Java
Nias 4,048 1,563 North Sumatra
Siberut 3,829 1,478 West Sumatra
Wetar 3,600 1,390 East Nusa Tenggara
Waigeo 3,155 1,218 West Papua
Yamdena 2,981 1,151 Maluku
Taliabu 2,913 1,125 North Maluku
Muna 2,889 1,115 Southeast Sulawesi
Obi 2,542 981 North Maluku


(1) Second largest island in the world after Greenland, geographically it is located in Oceania; divided between Papua New Guinea (372,500 kmē) to the east and Indonesia (413,253 kmē) to the west; in its territory there is the highest mountain on an island, Puncak Jaya (4,884 m.).
(2) Third largest island on the planet and the only one to be divided between more than 2 countries, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei; the Indonesian part is 533,250 kmē.
(3) Sixth largest island in the world.
(4) Thanks to its extremely intricate shape, it has a coastline of over 5,000 km.
(5) With about 147,000,000 inhabitants it is the most populous island on our planet, despite being only in 13th place as an extension.
(6) Since 2002 the eastern part of the island and the Oecusse exclave have become independent under the name of East Timor (or Timor-Leste); 15,521 kmē of territory belong to Indonesia.