Indonesia is the world’s largest archipelagic state, consisting of more than 17,000 islands spread between the Indian and Pacific oceans.
The country stretches across the equator in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Its major islands include Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Sulawesi, and New Guinea, although several of these are shared with neighboring countries. Java contains Jakarta and is one of the most densely populated islands on Earth.
Indonesia’s islands formed a vast maritime crossroads linking Asian and Pacific cultures. Its geography also places it on the Pacific Ring of Fire, producing many volcanoes and earthquakes. The country has hundreds of ethnic groups and hundreds of living languages.
Island totals vary slightly because different surveys use different definitions of an island and different mapping methods. The stable geographic fact is that Indonesia is an enormous archipelago, not a single continental landmass.