I got to wondering which countries have a single state/province/region/1st level administrative unit that’s an island or island group. The island state must have the exact same status as the country’s mainland states, so those considered autonomous or overseas regions are out. Three obvious ones immmeditately came to mind (I’m sure you can guess which those three were) and after some thought and research, I came up with this list:
Australia - Tasmania
Canada - Prince Edward Island
China - Hainan
Ecuador - Galapagos
Russia - Sakhalin Oblast
Sweden - Gotland
USA - Hawaii
Obviously, the question is are there any more? And of course the followup question, what countries have exactly two island states/provinces? (The states/provinces must be on separate islands or groups.) So far I’ve only come up with two:
Italy - Sicily, Sardinia
Spain - Balearic Is, Canary Is
Note: Denmark (Faroes, Greenland) and Portugal (Azores, Madeira) are out since they call their islands Autonomous Regions. If you want to ignore the autonomous regions of Denmark and just consider the regular regions, the two only on islands share the island of Zealand, so Denmark still doesn’t count.
I was going to say France (Corsica) is an obvious one, but then I saw that Guadalupe, Martinique, Mayotte and Reunion are all legally of them same status as the metropolitan regions,
Might be a whoosh — but just to clarify, most of Rhode Island state is on the mainland. It does include a small island with that name, but it’s just one of many islands in the general area, some much larger (like Long Island, in New York State).
I find things like that annoying. It’s like the Chicago suburb named, “Blue Island”. It’s neither remotely blue nor is it remotely close to being an island. It got that name because ONE GUY, a politician, said this almost ninety years ago:
"In 1834, the Chicago Democrat observed “the ridge, when viewed from a distance, appears standing in an azure mist of vapor, hence the appellation, Blue Island.”
Concerning the Canary Islands, they are not a province, but two. One is the province of Las Palmas, comprising the islands Fuerteventura, Lanzarote y Gran Canaria, the other is the province Santa Cruz de Tenerife, which comprises the islands Tenerife, La Palma (yes, La Palma is not in Las Palmas, and is not to be confused with Palma de Mallorca either, which is in the Balearic Islands), La Gomera and El Hierro.
Then both provinces together, plus some rocks and stuff that is not inhabited, constitute the Autonomous Region of the Canary Islands, one of several that make up the Kingdom of Spain (to give it its official title). The Balearic Islands, on the other hand, are both an autonomous region and a single province. Like Madrid, for instance, or like Ceuta and like Melilla and like Cantabria/Santander. So maybe the distinction between province, state and autonomous region is not so clear cut everywhere as you assume.
I guess the situation with the Azores is similar, but I don’t know enough about Portugal to tell for sure.
Now if you want a really confusing situation, look at Cyprus. One island, one state. Except the part of the island the state does not control, but which only Turkey recognizes as a souvereign state. And British military bases, and enclaves and exclaves! All in one island, a big part of which is out of bounds for visitors!
South Korea has Jeju province. It’s a “special self-governing province” which apparently means it has more authority over its own affairs than a “normal” province does.
And to avoid duplicated effort, here are some that I looked at that do not qualify:
Tanzania divides the Zanzibar archipelago into five regions, none of which is its own island.
The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are a “union territory” of India, which means that (unlike the full-fledged “states” of India) they do not have their own government.
Based on my research, I concluded that the 1st level administrative unit in Spain is the Autonomous Region. Provinces are 2nd level units. The fact that some Autonomous Regions only have one province is irrelevant. And the fact that the island groups were called Autonomous Regions did not disqualify them.
In Portugal, the mainland has three Regions as 1st level units. The two island groups are Autonomous Regions. I assume they have a reason for this distinction, but I don’t know what it is.
I said for Spain, the Province is the 2nd level unit. For Canada, the Province obviously is the 1st level unit. Each country has their own way of subdividing and the term for the 1st level is not the same for each.
I thought of this one too but I wasn’t sure whether a country that was entirely on islands was really in the spirit of the game, since the OP mentions “mainland states”.