Indonesian Archipelago

The Indonesian Archipelago stretches from Sumatra in Asia to the western part of New Guinea in Oceania, making Indonesia the world's largest archipelagic state, with a total area of about 8,300,000 square kilometers and a population of roughly 280 million as of 2023. Indonesian law lists 17,508 officially registered islands, though the national Geospatial Information Agency had formally named 17,024 of them as of 2023; older, larger counts differ because some earlier surveys included tidal islands, sandy cays and rocky reefs that appear only at low tide. Its highest point is Puncak Jaya, at 4,884 meters. The term is used both for the islands that make up the country of Indonesia and, more broadly, for the wider geographical grouping they belong to.