Thoughts - How Many Uninhabited Islands in the World?
First one must define island. According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea Part VIII:
1. An island is a naturally formed area of land, surrounded by water, which is above water at high tide.
2. Except as provided for in paragraph 3, the territorial sea, the contiguous zone, the exclusive economic zone and the continental shelf of an island are determined in accordance with the provisions of this Convention applicable to other land territory.
3. Rocks which cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of their own shall have no exclusive economic zone or continental shelf.
Now how about nations with lots of islands? Let's list those: Sweden 221,800; Finland 179,584; Canada 53,000; Norway 50,000; Indonesia 17,504; Philippines 7,107; Greece 6,000; Japan 3,000 and Maldives 2,000. In just these nine island rich countries, over 500,000 islands are accounted for. Now for the good news for all of you folks that want to find your own uninhabited island. That place where you can get away from all of the worries of the world - an uninhabited island. Of the 500,000 islands located in these nine countries, only 11, 000 (2%) have a permanent population. That leaves 539,000 (98%) mostly very small islands that have zero population. So take heart all of you Robinson Crusoes, there is an uninhabited island just waiting for you to claim it.
Enjoy!
Labels: uninhabited island
I don't really want to ruin your vision of the romantic island, but here are some fun facts about islands in Sweden. (I didn't know we were so special).
First no permanent living != uninhabited..
Most living quarters on islands in Sweden are vacation houses, but they could be used for living all year. It's just that living permanently on an island is hard, very harsh even, even in these times when you can reach them with boats going at 90km/h.
These islands, as you say, tend to be very small indeed usually just a islet with 10 trees and a house.
Posted by
Erik Johansson |
7/28/2009 05:07:00 PM
I would like to know if you are aware of any uninhabited atolls or islands that are not within the teritorial or economic waters of of any nation or principality and are in international waters.
I have a small group that would like to establish a getaway for use each of us to ues at different times of the year.
We would like to be indepent of any nation
ThanX
Roger Pellegrino
Posted by
Gran |
4/03/2010 04:35:00 PM
To follow up on my recent question asking "if you know of any atolls or Islands that are in international waters and are not in any country's economic zone"
It or they do not need to be inhabitable we would be self sufficient, and it does not necessarily need to be above sea level. An Atoll or group of Atolls or even a shol or lage sandbar just below the surface is all we need". Our group only needs a base on which to build. It would be nice if it were a larger one
ThanX
Roger Pellegrino
Posted by
Gran |
4/05/2010 05:36:00 AM