Pacific islands are also sometimes collectively called Oceania[1] (although Oceania is sometimes defined as also including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago),
The region's islands are classified into two groups, high islands and low islands. Volcanoes form high islands, which generally can support more people and have a more fertile soil. Low islands are reefs or atolls, and are relatively small and infertile. Melanesia, the most populated of the three regions, contains mainly high islands, while most of Micronesia and Polynesia are low islands.
This is a list of many of the major Pacific islands, organized by archipelago or political unit. In order to keep this list of moderate size, links are given to more complete lists for countries with large numbers of small or uninhabited islands.
Note: many Polynesian languages have a glottal stop, which in most of them is seldomly written, however. If a name with a < ʻ > cannot be found, try to rewrite it without it. See 'okina for more info.
