The Great Lakes and their connecting waterways, spanning across the borders of both Canada and the United States, contain an estimated 35,000 islands. However, relatively few of those islands have permanent populations. Most of them are uninhabited or sparsely used, ranging from tiny rocky outcrops to forested islands, private lands, and protected areas.
There are, however, a handful that host decently sized, permanent pockets of civilization. Grand Island has the largest population among these Great Lakes waterway islands, with about 21,400 residents, while places like Manitoulin Island and Wolfe Island show how permanent communities vary widely across the region. Learn more about the most populated islands in and around the Great Lakes, concentrated mainly in Lake Huron and scattered across the world’s most renowned network of connected freshwater lakes.