how many islands does australia have

Australia has just over 8,200 officially recognised islands within its maritime borders, with the most commonly cited total being 8,222 islands.

Quick Scoop

• Australia is recorded as having 8,222 islands spread around its coastline and external territories.

• This total comes from official national mapping and landform data that count islands in every state and territory, from Western Australia to New South Wales and beyond.

• Mainland Australia itself is usually described as a continent rather than counted as one of these islands, so the 8,222 figure refers to other surrounding islands.

Where are all these islands?

• Western Australia has the highest count (over 3,700 islands), followed by Queensland (almost 2,000), with significant numbers also around Tasmania and the Northern Territory.

• These islands range from tiny uninhabited rocky outcrops to large, well-known destinations like Tasmania, Kangaroo Island, and K’gari (Fraser Island).

Why different numbers appear

• Most reliable recent figures cluster “how many islands does Australia have” around 8,200+ , with 8,222 used by government and geographic sources as the official total.

• Minor discrepancies (like “over 8,000” or “over 8,200”) usually come from differences in how small features are classified as islands versus rocks or sandbanks.

In everyday use, if someone asks “how many islands does Australia have,” the best current answer is: about 8,222 islands in total.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.