Excluding continental landmasses, Greenland is the world’s largest island by area.
Greenland covers roughly 2.17 million square kilometers, placing it well ahead of New Guinea, Borneo, and Madagascar. It lies between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans and is geographically part of North America, although it is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark. More than 80 percent of its land surface is covered by the Greenland ice sheet.
The qualification “excluding continental landmasses” matters because Australia is sometimes treated as both a country and a continent. Under the usual geographic convention, continents are not counted as islands, so Greenland holds the title of largest island. Its immense size is therefore a classification fact as well as a measurement fact.
Greenland is not the same as an independent country: it has extensive self-government, while the Kingdom of Denmark retains responsibility for areas such as foreign affairs and defense. Its capital and largest city is Nuuk.