Place comparison

Orchid Island compared with Green Island: area, population and density

Orchid Island covers about 3.2 times Green Island’s land with only about 1.2 times its residents, so it is the emptier of the two by a wide margin.

Place A Grouped by country or region Place B Grouped by country or region

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

The guide below belongs to this pair: Orchid Island and Green Island. Change the selector above and the page follows, so the reading always matches the tool.

Direct answer

How different are Orchid Island and Green Island?

Orchid Island covers 48.4 km²; Orchid Island's area is 3.21 times Green Island's. Its reported population is 5,220; Orchid Island's population is 1.21 times Green Island's. By average density, Orchid Island's population density is about 37.6% of Green Island's.

Area difference

Orchid Island's area is 3.21 times Green Island's 48.4 km² · 15.1 km²

Population difference

Orchid Island's population is 1.21 times Green Island's 5,220 · 4,327

Density difference

Orchid Island's population density is about 37.6% of Green Island's 107.9 /km² · 286.7 /km²

Full data and sources for each place: Orchid Island, Green Island

Straight-line distance between geometric centres: about 68 km; time difference: none.

On a familiar scale

Orchid Island ≈ 1.42 × Magong City (reference rung) 9,270 m² of land per resident
Green Island ≈ 52% of Matsu (Lienchiang County) (reference rung) 3,488 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

These are Taitung County’s two offshore townships and the pairing is unusually clean: one source table, one reference date, two islands whose outlines are drawn from their own coastlines.

Geography and shape

Both islands sit east of Taiwan in the Pacific, Green Island about 33 km off Taitung and Orchid Island roughly 90 km further south. Both are volcanic, steep and ringed by a single coastal road, but Orchid Island is more than three times the land and rises to 548 m at Mount Hongtou against Green Island’s 281 m, so the extra area is mostly interior upland rather than more coastline to live on.

Population context

Orchid Island has about 1.2 times Green Island’s registered residents on about 3.2 times the land, so its average density is only about 38% of Green Island’s. Orchid Island’s population is overwhelmingly Tao (Yami), spread across six villages on the coast; Green Island’s is concentrated in three villages on its western and northern shores. Neither figure counts visitors, and both islands receive far more of those than they have residents.

Boundaries and definitions

Both figures come from one table — the Ministry of the Interior’s township land area and population density series at year-end 2025 — so the area date, the population date and the definition are identical on both sides. One scope difference remains: Lanyu Township also contains the uninhabited Little Orchid Island (Jimagaod) offshore, which is inside the 48.3892 km² but outside the outline drawn here, so the drawn shape is about 5% smaller than the number. Liuqiu Township, by contrast, has no such outlier. Green Island Township and the island are effectively coextensive.

Orchid Island: Lanyu Township, Taitung County, at year-end 2025: 48.3892 km² of land and 5,220 registered residents, both from the same Ministry of the Interior table. The township covers Orchid Island together with the uninhabited Little Orchid Island (Jimagaod) offshore, so the outline drawn here — Orchid Island alone, about 45.8 km² — is roughly 5% smaller than the area figure.

Green Island: Physical Green Island area paired with the registered population of Green Island Township at year-end 2025. The township and main island are nearly coextensive, but the population remains an administrative count.

In-depth guide

How should Orchid Island and Green Island be understood in context?

Orchid Island is about 3.2 times Green Island by land and about 1.2 times by population, which leaves it at roughly 38% of Green Island’s average density. This is the cleanest pair on the site: two townships of the same county, two rows of the same government table, one reference date.

Why these two belong on the same page

They are Taitung County’s only two offshore townships, both volcanic, both circled by a single road, both reached by ferry from Taitung and by small aircraft. Measured against Taiwan Main Island either one reads as a rounding error — Orchid Island is 0.14% of it — and a percentage that small conveys nothing. Measured against each other, and against the Penghu and Green Island rungs of this site’s reference ladder, they produce numbers a reader can hold.

The size gap is real but the shape of it matters more than the multiple. Orchid Island rises to 548 m at Mount Hongtou and Green Island to 281 m at Mount Huoshao. Both confine settlement to a coastal shelf, and Orchid Island’s extra 33 km² is almost entirely interior upland. So "3.2 times the size" is true about the land and misleading about the living space.

The density gap is a land gap, not a population gap

Orchid Island has 5,220 registered residents and Green Island 4,327 — close enough that neither island is meaningfully more populous than the other. The entire density difference comes from the denominator: 48.3892 km² against 15.0919. Reading the two numbers in that order is the point of the page, because "Orchid Island has more people" and "Orchid Island is emptier" are both true and sound contradictory until the land figure is in front of you.

Both counts are household registration, which records where a person is registered rather than where they sleep, and neither counts a single visitor. On two islands whose annual visitor numbers exceed their resident numbers by a wide margin, that limitation is not a technicality. The density figures here describe the permanent community, not a day in the high season.

One scope difference, stated rather than smoothed

Lanyu Township also contains Little Orchid Island (Jimagaod), an uninhabited islet about 5 km south-east of the main island. It is inside the 48.3892 km² and outside the outline drawn here, which traces Orchid Island alone at about 45.8 km². That is the entire roughly 5% discrepancy between the drawn shape and the stated area, and it is disclosed for the same reason Koh Samui’s and Penghu’s scope gaps are: a reader who measures the picture should be able to find out why it does not match the number.

Green Island Township has no equivalent outlier, so on that side the administrative unit and the island are effectively the same ground. Everything else matches: both rows come from the Ministry of the Interior’s year-end 2025 township table, so the area date, the population date and the definition of a resident are identical. Nothing needs adjusting before one figure is divided by the other, which is rarer on this site than it should be.

Questions people ask

About this geographic comparison

Which is bigger, Orchid Island or Green Island?

Orchid Island is bigger, with a land area about 3.21× that of Green Island (48.4 vs 15.1 km²).

How do Orchid Island and Green Island differ in area, population and density?

Orchid Island is 3.21× the size of Green Island — 48.4 km² vs 15.1 km². Population is 1.21× higher; average density is 37.6% as high. Each side’s scope and reference date are set out under “Boundaries and definitions” on this page.

Why is Orchid Island so much less crowded than Green Island?

Because the land grows much faster than the population: about 3.2 times the area against about 1.2 times the residents leaves Orchid Island at roughly 38% of Green Island’s average density. Most of the extra land is steep interior, not settled coast.

Do the two figures use the same definition?

Yes, unusually so. Both the land area and the registered population come from the same Ministry of the Interior table at the same year-end 2025 reference date, so no adjustment is needed before dividing one by the other.

Does Orchid Island include Little Orchid Island?

The area does, the outline does not. Lanyu Township’s 48.3892 km² covers Orchid Island plus the uninhabited Little Orchid Island (Jimagaod) about 5 km to the south-east; the outline on this page draws Orchid Island alone, about 45.8 km². That is the whole of the roughly 5% gap between the drawn shape and the stated area.

Sources

Outline data: