There are about 221 800 islands in Sweden. Stockholm County has the most islands, followed by Västra Götaland. At the end of 2008, 1 085 islands had a permanent population. 598 of these islands did not have a fixed link to the mainland.
The total number of islands in the seas, lakes and watercourses is 221 831. The total land area of these islands is 1 057 371 hectares. This corresponds to 2.6 percent of Sweden’s land area. The total circumference of the islands, i.e. shorelines/coastlines is 60 761 km. This is equal to measuring 1.5 times around the Earth. 98 372 islands are surrounded by sea, while 123 459 islands are in lakes and watercourses.
Stockholm County has the most islands (30 535), followed by Västra Götaland County. Gotland County has the largest total area for islands.
About 40 percent of the islands are in the size interval of 100-1 000 square meters. More than 90 percent of the islands have an area of less than 1 hectare (100 x 100 metres).
Stockholm has the most inhabited islands
Of the 221 800 islands, 1 085 had permanent populations at the end of 2008. Stockholm had the most inhabited islands, or 319 islands. Västra Götaland County had 150 inhabited islands
Inhabited islands without a fixed link to the mainland
Of the islands with a permanent population, 598 islands do not have a fixed link to the mainland. The population on the majority of these islands is small. Only 121 islands in the seas and 12 islands in lakes had 10 or more inhabitants at the end of 2008. Most of these islands were in Västra Götaland County and Stockholm County. Twenty of these islands have a settlement (area with at least 200 inhabitants). Visingsö in Lake Vättern is the only lake island that has a settlement without a fixed link to the mainland.