According to classification by size, mainland Australia (7.6 million km2) is the smallest continent and Greenland (2.1 million km2) is the largest island.

So Greenland is 21 times larger than Iceland, with a population of 65,000. Iceland is number 18, with its 100,000 km2 (population 320,000). Number two, New Guinea, is 7.8 times bigger than the Republic of Iceland. Population: 8 million.

Borneo is ranked third, a smidge smaller than New Guinea, population 20 million in three states: Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei. Fourth is Madagascar, 5.9 times larger than Iceland, population 22 million.

Number five, and five times larger than Iceland, is Baffin Island, population 10,000, while sixth is Sumatra, 4.4 times the size of Iceland with a population of 52 million.

Number seven is Honshu, the largest of the Japanese islands, 2.2 times larger than Iceland, with a population of 103 million. Victoria Island on the north coast of Canada is number eight, 2.1 times the size of Iceland, population, 2,000.

Great Britain is ninth on the list, twice the size of Iceland, with a population of 63 million, followed by Ellesmere Island, number 10, and Sulawesi in Indonesia, number 11.

New Zealand’s South Island, 1.4 times the size of Iceland and with 1 million inhabitants is twelfth. Number 13 is Java, 1.3 times larger than Iceland, with 140 million people—the world’s most populated island.

New Zealand’s North Island is next on the list. The island measures 1.1 times the size of Iceland and has a population of 3.4 million, followed by Luzon, the largest of the Philippine islands, nine percent larger than Iceland, population close to 50 million.

Newfoundland is sixteenth. Eight percent larger than Iceland, it has a population of 480,000. Newfoundland is followed by Cuba, only slightly larger than Iceland, with 11.1 million people.

Number 18 is the Republic of Iceland, an island consisting of one of the youngest land masses on the planet.

Finally, the oldest, and the world’s biggest island Greenland, our next-door neighbor 400 kilometers to the west, is next.

The southernmost point of Greenland goes as far south as southern Norway, and the northernmost tip is closer to the North Pole than any other country.

Yes, Greenland lies to the west of Iceland, but also the South, North and East; the easternmost point of Greenland is more easterly than Gerpir, the eastern most point of Iceland.

The world is not flat.

Páll Stefánsson - ps@icelandreview.com