Place comparison
Hainan Island compared with Taiwan Main Island: area, population and density
The two islands are close in land area, but Hainan holds under half as many people, so its average density is about half of Taiwan Main Island’s.
Equal-area outline comparison
Outlines are centered and scaled by official land area; position does not show geographic location.
Area
Population
Population density
Area data date
Population data date
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The detailed guide below compares Hainan Island with Taiwan Main Island. Use the selector above to explore any other pair.
Direct answer
How different are Hainan Island and Taiwan Main Island?
Hainan Island covers 33,900 km²; Hainan Island's area is about 94.7% of Taiwan Main Island's. Its reported population is 10,552,300; Hainan Island's population is about 45.7% of Taiwan Main Island's. By average density, Hainan Island's population density is about 48.3% of Taiwan Main Island's.
Population difference
Hainan Island's population is about 45.7% of Taiwan Main Island's 10,552,300 · 23,087,329Density difference
Hainan Island's population density is about 48.3% of Taiwan Main Island's 311.3 /km² · 644.7 /km²On a familiar scale
- Hainan Island ≈ 11.5 × Kaohsiung City 3,213 m² of land per resident
- Taiwan Main Island ≈ 12.1 × Kaohsiung City 1,551 m² of land per resident
Reference scales come from Department of Household Registration, Ministry of the Interior: Land area, households and population density by township and district (year-end 2025) , as of 2025-12-31.
How to read it
Nearly the same island, very different settlement. Area alone would have told you almost nothing here.
Geography and shape
Both are large tropical and subtropical islands with mountainous interiors and populated coastal plains. Hainan is rounder and more compact; Taiwan Main Island is longer north to south with a central range that pushes most settlement to its western side. Put on one scale the two outlines are close in size, which is what makes the population gap the more interesting number.
Population context
Taiwan Main Island holds more than twice as many residents on slightly more land, so its average density is roughly double. Both averages include mountain interiors that are barely settled, so neither describes a coastal city on either island.
Boundaries and definitions
The Hainan area is the island itself, but the population is the province’s, which also administers other island groups. Those groups hold only a few thousand residents, so the overstatement is small, but the density here divides a provincial population by an island area and is not like-for-like. The province separately publishes a land area of 35,400 km²; the roughly 2,000,000 km² figure often quoted for Hainan is maritime jurisdiction, not land. Taiwan Main Island excludes every offshore island, and its population is derived because no official body publishes one.
Hainan Island: Area is the land area of Hainan Island itself, published by the provincial government as 33,900 km², covering only the main island. The population is the province's — 10,552,300 permanent residents at year-end 2025 — so the density here divides a provincial population by an island area. The overstatement is small, because the province's other administered islands hold only a few thousand residents, but the pairing is not like-for-like. Hainan Province separately publishes a land area of 35,400 km², which adds those island groups; the roughly 2,000,000 km² figure often quoted for Hainan is maritime jurisdiction, not land, and is never used here. The area carries no stated survey date, so the date shown is when the official page was read.
Taiwan Main Island: The main island alone, excluding every offshore island. Area is the Ministry of the Interior's island-proper land (35,767.6263 km²) plus its reclaimed tidal land (44.4337 km²); the ministry publishes the two components but no combined main-island total. Population is derived from the same household-registration table used for Taiwan as a whole, subtracting Penghu, Kinmen and Lienchiang counties, the Pratas and Spratly Islands, and the Green Island, Orchid Island, Liuqiu and Qijin townships. No official body publishes a main-island population.
In-depth guide
How should Hainan Island and Taiwan Main Island be understood in context?
Two islands that land close together in area and far apart in settlement. Area alone would have told a reader almost nothing here, which is the whole reason the pairing is worth reading.
Where area stops being informative
Hainan Island is 33,900 km² and Taiwan Main Island is 35,812.06 km². Placed on one scale the two outlines look like near-equivalents, and a reader holding only those two numbers would reasonably conclude that the islands are interchangeable. The population figures, 10,552,300 against a derived 23,087,329, immediately undo that conclusion.
The general lesson is that land is a container, not a description of what sits inside it. Adding population is what turns this page into something readable. Both averages still include mountain interiors that are barely settled, so neither of them describes a coastal city on either island.
The two Hainan figures do not cover the same ground
The area used here is the island’s; the population is the province’s, and the province also administers other island groups. The density on this page therefore divides a provincial population by an island area, which is not like-for-like. Those other groups hold only a few thousand residents, so the effect on the result is small.
Small is not the same as absent, so the mismatch is stated rather than quietly absorbed. Anyone recomputing the density from other sources should know which numerator was used. Carry the note with the number.
Two traps in published Hainan areas
The roughly 2,000,000 km² figure that circulates for Hainan is maritime jurisdiction, not land. It is by far the most common way a Hainan area figure gets corrupted, and it is large enough that the error is obvious once the reader knows to look for it. This page uses land area only.
The second trap is quieter. The province separately publishes a land area of 35,400 km², which is a provincial total rather than the island, so quoting it as the island’s area overstates the land. Check which of the two a source means before comparing it with anything.
Questions people ask
About this geographic comparison
Which island is larger?
Taiwan Main Island, but only slightly — the two are within a few per cent of each other by land area. The exact current ratio is calculated above.
Why is Hainan so much less densely populated?
It holds under half as many residents on a similar amount of land. This page reports that difference; it does not explain it, which would need economic and migration data outside an area-and-population comparison.
Is the 2 million km² figure for Hainan an area?
No. That figure describes maritime jurisdiction, not land, and it is the most common way Hainan area figures get corrupted. This page uses land area only.
Sources
- Hainan Provincial People's Government: Hainan overview: island land area
- Hainan Provincial Bureau of Statistics: Main data on the permanent resident population of Hainan Province, 2025
- Department of Land Administration, Ministry of the Interior: Yearbook of Interior Statistics 05-18: area and coastline of Taiwan (end of 2017)
- Department of Household Registration, Ministry of the Interior: Land area, households and population density by township and district (year-end 2024)
Outline data: