Sweden is the European country generally recognized as having the most islands in the world.
Sweden’s official and widely cited count is about 267,570 islands. They range from substantial inhabited islands to tiny skerries and rocky islets scattered through the Baltic Sea and along the country’s indented coast. The Stockholm archipelago alone contains thousands of islands, islets and rocks.
Most Swedish islands are uninhabited. Only about 984 are counted as inhabited in commonly cited statistics, and many others are too small for permanent settlement. Glacial erosion helped create Sweden’s exceptionally fragmented coastline and lake landscapes, leaving countless rocky fragments surrounded by water.
Island rankings require caution because countries use different definitions. Some counts include inland islands, tiny skerries or landforms that other surveys exclude. Norway and Finland also have enormous totals, but Sweden is the standard answer in general-knowledge quizzes because its published total is the highest under a widely used nationwide count.