Greece has many islands,[Note 1] with estimates ranging from somewhere around 1,200 to 6,000, depending on the minimum size to take into account. The number of inhabited islands is variously cited as between 166 and 227.
The largest Greek island by area is Crete, located at the southern edge of the Aegean Sea. The second largest island is Euboea or Evvia, which is separated from the mainland by the 60m-wide Euripus Strait, and is administered as part of the Central Greece region. After the third and fourth largest Greek islands, Lesbos and Rhodes, the rest of the islands are two-thirds of the area of Rhodes, or smaller.
The Greek islands are traditionally grouped into the following clusters: the Argo-Saronic Islands in the Saronic Gulf near Athens; the Cyclades, a large but dense collection occupying the central part of the Aegean Sea; the North Aegean islands, a loose grouping off the west coast of Turkey; the Dodecanese, another loose collection in the southeast between Crete and Turkey; the Sporades, a small tight group off the coast of Euboea; and the Ionian Islands, chiefly located to the west of the mainland in the Ionian Sea. Crete with its surrounding islets and Euboea are traditionally excluded from this grouping.
The following are the largest Greek islands listed by surface area. The table includes all islands of over 96 square kilometres (37 sq mi).
|3||Lesbos||Λέσβος||630||1,633||North Aegean Islands|
|5||Chíos||Χίος||325||842.3||North Aegean Islands|
|8||Lemnos||Λήμνος||184||477.6||North Aegean Islands|
|9||Samos||Σάμος||184||477.4||North Aegean Islands|
|12||Thassos||Θάσου||147||380.1||North Aegean Islands|
|18||Icaria||Ικαρία||99||255||North Aegean Islands|
|22||Samothrace||Σαμοθράκη||69||178||North Aegean Islands|
This list includes Argo-Saronic islands, which are located in the Saronic Gulf. The largest Argo-Saronic island is Salamis. The main islands are in bold. Uninhabited islands are indicated, including those that may have been inhabited in the past:
The two lists below show the islands, islets, and rocks that surround the island of Crete that are in the Aegean Sea or Libyan Sea.
Islands on the south coast of Crete are considered in the Libyan Sea.
There are 164 total Dodecanese Islands of which 26 are inhabited. There are 12 main islands, as listed in bold below:
There are also two North Aegean Islands in the Thracian Sea:
The 30 islands in the Sporades are listed below with the four major islands in bold. The largest Sporades island is Skyros.
The following islands are close to the mainland and not part of a sea: