What is the smallest island in the world?

TUVALU -

Is the smallest Island country, situated in west-central South Pacific Ocean. Area: 9.9 sq mi (25.6 sq km). Population (2005 est.): 9,700. Capital: Vaiaku, Fongafale islet (of Funafuti atoll). The majority of the people are Polynesian. Languages: Tuvaluan; English is widely used. Religion: Christianity (predominantly Protestant). Currency: Tuvalu dollar (equivalent to the Australian dollar). Tuvalu is an island group comprising five atolls and four coral islands, all of them low-lying, with maximum elevations below 20 ft (6 m), and covered mainly with coconut palms, breadfruit trees, and grasses. The economy is based on subsistence agriculture and livestock raising. Tuvalu is a constitutional monarchy with one legislative house; its chief of state is the British monarch represented by the governor-general, and the head of government is the prime minister. The original Polynesian settlers probably came mainly from Samoa or Tonga. The islands were sighted by the Spanish in the 16th century. Europeans settled there in the 19th century and intermarried with Tuvaluans. During this period Peruvian slave traders known as "blackbirders" decimated the population. In 1856 the U.S. claimed the four southern islands for guano mining. Missionaries from Europe arrived in 1865 and rapidly converted the islanders to Christianity. In 1892 Tuvalu, then known as the Ellice Islands, joined the British Gilbert Islands, a protectorate that became the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony in 1916. Tuvaluans voted in 1974 for separation from the Gilberts (now Kiribati), whose people are Micronesian. Tuvalu gained independence in 1978, and in 1979 the U.S. relinquished its claims. Elections were held in 1981, and a revised constitution was adopted in 1986. The government subsequently has tried to improve Tuvalu's economy, including finding overseas job opportunities for its citizens.-

Smallest island: Bishop Rock, in the Isles of Scilly off southwest England, is sometimes called the world's smallest island, but this is an unwarranted claim based on an arbitrary 19th century bureaucratic classification scheme. It is impossible to determine an actual world's smallest island.

Under certain conditions, the criteria for an island—a fairly permanent piece of land surrounded by water and possessing substantial vegetation—can be met by an islet of less than 100 square feet.

Smallest island country: The smallest independent island country is the Pacific island of Nauru, which is 8.2 sq mi / 21.3 sq km.

To answer this question we must first answer 'What is an island?'

A hunk of rock classifies an an island if one of two conditions are true:

It is inhabited.

It has to equal the size of the summer's pasturage of at least one sheep which is equal to two acres according to an 1861 bureaucratic classification.

Now that that is out of the way, the world's smallest island is Bishop Rock located of the south west point of the United Kingdom.

Bishop Rock houses a manned lighthouse on a 46 x 16 meter expanse of rocks that combined makes up the world's smallest island.

The great divergence started in the 1500's as England started to pull ahead of Europe and the rest of the world. The English were always very practical about money. Most Kings would not even touch money because it was beneath them, while Elizabeth actively invested in voyages. Since the middle ages England had the largest free trade zone in Europe. Countries like France and Spain had internal tariffs. When competing with the Netherlands, the British had the advantage of a large home market. In the 17th century England became well established in India, and North America. By 1700 Britain had the highest per capital income in the world. In the 18th century Britannia ruled the waves, lost their only war, started the industrial revolution and flooded the world with cheap british cloth.

Nauru (pronounced [næˈuː.ɹuː]), officially the Republic of Nauru, is an island nation in the Micronesian South Pacific. The nearest neighbour is Banaba Island in the Republic of Kiribati, 300 km due east. Nauru is the world's smallest island nation, covering just 21 km² (8.1 sq. mi), the smallest independent republic, and the only republican state in the world without an official capital.

Tiny Island in the south Pacific! It is only 12 square feet at low tide!

Probably the odd little island in the English Channel that makes its living issuing stamps - you did want a country.

although Niue gets some people's vote http://www.nunames.nu/Press/ius-n.cfm

wow ther must be afew but im gonna have to say 'michaelmas cay' its just sand but yet they still refer to it as an island, u can stand on it in the middle of the great barrier reef. plenty of tiny islands there. i know it aint a country island with any ppl living onit but thousands go out to it everyday on boats, its amazing!!

According to Guinness - is the Bishop Rock located SW of United Kingdom, it has a lighthouse on it.