According to Philippines history and facts about the country, the Philippines is composed of 7,107 islands but that’s history right now as NAMRIA confirmed that they discovered more than 400 islands using the interferometric synthetic aperture radar (IFSAR) technolgy conducted in 2013.
NAMRIA which is under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is the agency responsible for providing map-making services to the public, and the central mapping agency, depository, and distribution facility for natural resources data in the form of maps, charts, texts and statistics.
According to Jose Cabanayan Jr., deputy administrator of NAMRIA, said that majority of the newly-discovered islands are found in Mindanao. He clarified that to be considered as an island, a landmass should be above sea level and high tide at any given time, and can support either plant or animal life, or both.
According to various facts and figures about the Philippines, out of the 7,107 islands in the Philippines, only about 2,000 islands are inhabited and 5,000 islands still have no names.
The island of Luzon is considered a the country’s largest island where the capital of Manila was located. Luzon island is also the 4th most populated island in the world with over 47 million people occupying around 109,965 square kilometers.