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Tuamotu, French Polynesia

The Pacific Ocean contains an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 islands (the exact number has yet to be precisely determined). Those islands lying south of the tropic of Cancer but excluding Australia are traditionally grouped into three divisions: Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Inhabitants are sometimes referred to as Pacific Islanders.

Pacific islands are also sometimes collectively called Oceania ^[1] (although Oceania is sometimes defined as also including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago),

Melanesia means black islands. These include New Guinea (the largest Pacific island, which is divided into the sovereign nation of Papua New Guinea and the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Irian Jaya), New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji, and the Solomon Islands.

Micronesia means small islands. These include the Marianas, Guam, Wake Island, Palau, the Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, and the Federated States of Micronesia. Most of these lie north of the equator.

Polynesia means many islands. These include New Zealand, the Hawaiian Islands, Rotuma, the Midway Islands, Samoa, American Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, the Cook Islands, French Polynesia, and Easter Island. It is the largest of the three zones.

The region's islands are classified into two groups, high islands and low islands. Volcanoes form high islands, which generally can support more people and have a more fertile soil. Low islands are reefs or atolls, and are relatively small and infertile. Melanesia, the most populated of the three regions, contains mainly high islands, while most of Micronesia and Polynesia are low islands.

There are also many other islands located within the boundaries of the Pacific Ocean, but these are not considered part of Oceania. These islands include the Galápagos Islands of Ecuador; the Aleutian Islands in Alaska; the Russian islands of Sakhalin and Kuril Islands; Taiwan; the Philippines; the South China Sea Islands; most of the islands of Indonesia; and the island nation of Japan, which includes the Ryukyu Islands. The inhabitants of these islands are not considered to be Pacific Islanders and are usually identified with their nearest continent.

This is a list of many of the major Pacific Islands, organized by archipelago or political unit. In order to keep this list of moderate size, links are given to more complete lists for countries with large numbers of small or uninhabited islands.
Note: many Polynesian languages have a glottal stop, which in most of them is seldomly written, however. If a name with a < ʻ > cannot be found, try to rewrite it without it. See 'okina for more info.

• list of islands in the South China Sea
• list of islands in the East China Sea
• list of islands in the Sea of Japan
• Japanese archipelago
• list of islands of the Republic of China
• Philippine archipelago

• List of islands
• List of islands in the United States
• List of islands in the Arctic Ocean
• List of islands in the Atlantic Ocean
• List of islands in the Caribbean
• List of islands in the Indian Ocean
• List of islands of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean
• List of islands of Australia
• List of islands of Asia
• List of islands belonging to Kiribati
• List of islands of New Zealand
• List of islands of North America
• List of islands of South America
• List of islands in Tonga

• William Collins Sons & Co Ltd (1983), Collins Atlas of the World (revised 1995 ed.), London W6 8JB: HarperCollins, ISBN 0 00 448227 1

v • d • e Countries and territories of Oceania
Australasia	Australia · Christmas Island · Cocos (Keeling) Islands · New Zealand1[›] · Norfolk Island
Melanesia	East Timor2[›] · Fiji · Indonesia (Maluku Islands) · New Caledonia · Papua New Guinea3[›] · Solomon Islands · Vanuatu
Micronesia	Federated States of Micronesia · Guam · Kiribati · Marshall Islands · Nauru · Northern Mariana Islands · Palau
Polynesia	American Samoa · Cook Islands · French Polynesia · Niue · Pitcairn · Samoa · Tokelau · Tonga · Tuvalu · Wallis and Futuna
^ 1: New Zealand is often included in Polynesia. ^ 2: East Timor is often included in Asia. ^ 3: New Guinea is often included in Australasia.