List of islands of Hawaii

The state of Hawaii, comprising all of the Hawaiian Islands apart from Midway Atoll, has the fourth-longest ocean coastline of the 50 states (after Alaska, Florida, and California) at 1,210 kilometres (750 mi). It is the only state that consists entirely of islands, with 16,634.5 km² (6,422.6 mi²) of land. The Hawaiian Island archipelago extends some 2,400 kilometres (1,500 mi) from the southernmost island of Hawaiʻi to the northernmost Kure Atoll. Despite being within the boundaries of Hawaii, Midway Atoll, comprising several smaller islands, is not included as an island of Hawaii, because it is classified as a United States Minor Outlying Islands and is therefore administered by the federal government and not the state. The Palmyra Atoll, historically claimed by both Hawaii and the United States is not included because it was separated from Hawaii when it became a state in 1959 and is part of the United States Minor Outlying Islands. The Johnston Atoll which is not included in this list was claimed by both the United States and the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1858 but the Hawaiian Claim was revoked by King Kamehameha the IV later that year upon his learning of the US claim to the island and is now part of the United States Minor Outlying Islands.

Hawaii is divided into five counties: Hawaiʻi, Honolulu, Kalawao, Kauaʻi, and Maui. Each island is included in the boundaries and under the administration of one of these counties. Honolulu County, despite being centralized, administers the outlying Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Kalawao (the smallest county in the United States in terms of land area) and Maui, both occupying the island of Molokaʻi, are the only counties that share an island. Hawaii is typically recognized by its eight main islands of which seven are inhabited. The main eight islands of Hawaii are:

The state of Hawaii officially recognizes only 137 islands in the state which includes four islands of the Midway Atoll. An island in this sense may also include much smaller and typically uninhabited islets, rocks, coral reefs, and atolls. For that reason, this article lists 152 separate islands (but also names smaller island chains such as the French Frigate Shoals, which includes 13 islands of its own). Some of these are too small to appear on maps, and others, such as Maro Reef, only appear above the water's surface during times of low tide. Others, such as the islands Shark and Skate, have completely eroded away.

The majority of the Hawaiian Islands are uninhabited, with Niʻihau being the westernmost island with a population of around 130 natives, no one else is allowed on the island. All the islands west of Niʻihau—those categorized as the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands—are unpopulated and recently incorporated into the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. The island of Oʻahu has just over one million residents (about 70% of the state's population), and the island of Hawaiʻi is by far the largest island with an area of 10,430 km² (4,030 mi²)—62.7% of the state's land area. The islands were first settled as early as AD 300 by Polynesian long-distance navigators. British captain James Cook was the first European to land on the islands in January 1778. The islands, which were governed independently up until 1898 were then annexed by the United States as a territory from 1898 to 1959. On August 21, 1959, they were collectively admitted as the 50th state.

The islands are the exposed peaks of a great undersea mountain range known as the Hawaiian–Emperor seamount chain, formed by volcanic activity over a hotspot in the Earth's mantle. The archipelago formed as the Pacific plate moved slowly northwestward over a hotspot in the mantle at about 51 kilometres (32 mi) per million years. The islands in the northwest of the archipelago are older and typically smaller, due to longer exposure to erosion. The age of the archipelago has been estimated using potassium-argon dating methods. It is estimated that the northwesternmost Kure Atoll is the oldest at approximately 28 million years, while the southeasternmost Hawaiʻi Island is approximately 400,000 years old and still subjected to ongoing volcanism—one of the most active hotspots on Earth.

Note that there are typos in the sources for the smaller islands, such as 'Mokuʻlai',[1] which is not a possible Hawaiian name. The ʻokina and macrons for long vowels are mostly missing from the lists below.