What is the largest island in Asia?

Borneo is the largest island in Asia. Covering roughly 748,000 square kilometres, it is also the third-largest island in the world, after Greenland and New Guinea.

Borneo lies in maritime Southeast Asia and is politically divided among Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei. Indonesia’s portion, known as Kalimantan, occupies most of the island, while the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak and the small nation of Brunei lie in the north. The island is famous for tropical rainforests, extensive river systems, and exceptional biodiversity, including orangutans, proboscis monkeys, and the Bornean elephant.

Java is far more densely populated but much smaller. Sumatra is another enormous Indonesian island, yet it does not surpass Borneo in area. Honshu is Japan’s largest island and contains cities such as Tokyo and Osaka, but it too is considerably smaller. Borneo should not be confused with the Indonesian region of Kalimantan: Kalimantan refers only to the island’s Indonesian territory, not the entire island.