Which country is home to the Galápagos Islands?

Ecuador is home to the Galápagos Islands.

The Galápagos archipelago lies in the Pacific Ocean about 1,000 kilometres west of mainland Ecuador. Ecuador annexed the islands in 1832, and they remain an Ecuadorian province and national park. Their volcanic origins, isolation, and varied habitats produced an unusually high level of endemism, meaning many species occur nowhere else naturally.

Charles Darwin visited the islands aboard HMS Beagle in 1835. Observations of mockingbirds, tortoises, finches, and other animals later contributed to his development of the theory of evolution by natural selection. The islands’ wildlife remains a major focus of conservation and scientific research.

The Galápagos are not part of a separate country, despite their distance from the mainland. They are also not synonymous with the whole of Ecuador: Ecuador includes a large mainland territory in the Andes, Amazon basin, and Pacific coast. UNESCO designated the Galápagos a World Heritage Site in 1978, and tourism is managed to limit pressure on its fragile ecosystems.