Sunshine Atlas

The world's sunniest islands in 2026, ranked

55 of the world's best-loved holiday islands ranked by annual sunshine, from long-term climate normals, by Sunshine Atlas. Published October 2026. The cross-archipelago companion to our Greek-island and Canary-island guides.

Key findings
• Hawaii (Big Island) (United States) is the world's sunniest island: 3,315 hours of sun a year.
• Gran Canaria and Cyprus follow, at 3,298 and 3,224 h.
• Best island for winter sun: Gran Canaria (Spain), 93/100 on the November–February Sunshine Score, sea 22°C.

The full ranking — annual sunshine

#IslandCountrySun h/yrMean sea
1Hawaii (Big Island)United States3,31527°C
2Gran CanariaSpain3,29822°C
3CyprusCyprus3,22424°C
4KosGreece3,21822°C
5MauiUnited States3,21826°C
6RhodesGreece3,20122°C
7RéunionRéunion3,18727°C
8ArubaAruba3,17628°C
9AntiguaAntigua & Barbuda3,15129°C
10St. MaartenSint Maarten3,13129°C
11OahuUnited States3,11326°C
12SamosGreece3,08121°C
13La PalmaSpain3,07523°C
14MartiniqueMartinique3,04829°C
15BarbadosBarbados3,04729°C
16MaltaMalta3,04622°C
17CuraçaoCuraçao3,03829°C
18SantoriniGreece3,01221°C
19MauritiusMauritius2,98526°C
20LanzaroteSpain2,97921°C
21FuerteventuraSpain2,97921°C
22ZakynthosGreece2,97021°C
23IbizaSpain2,95021°C
24SeychellesSeychelles2,94329°C
25TenerifeSpain2,93322°C
26GuadeloupeGuadeloupe2,93229°C
27KythiraGreece2,91821°C
28CreteGreece2,91222°C
29MykonosGreece2,89720°C
30Sri LankaSri Lanka2,87630°C
31BahamasBahamas2,86528°C
32MallorcaSpain2,86021°C
33KefaloniaGreece2,84621°C
34ZanzibarTanzania2,83629°C
35MadeiraPortugal2,83522°C
36CorfuGreece2,81922°C
37MenorcaSpain2,81821°C
38SicilyItaly2,81422°C
39BaliIndonesia2,77730°C
40New CaledoniaNew Caledonia2,76126°C
41SardiniaItaly2,74620°C
42CorsicaFrance2,74520°C
43Isla MargaritaVenezuela2,63228°C
44FijiFiji2,62529°C
45Puerto RicoPuerto Rico2,61929°C
46JamaicaJamaica2,59729°C
47SkiathosGreece2,52420°C
48AzoresPortugal2,36520°C
49LangkawiMalaysia2,35031°C
50Koh SamuiThailand2,34231°C
51PenangMalaysia2,27631°C
52PhuketThailand2,26030°C
53CebuPhilippines2,25930°C
54GuernseyGuernsey1,93114°C
55JerseyJersey1,93014°C

Explore all 3,833 destinations on the interactive globe →

Best islands for winter sun

The same islands re-ranked by the November–February Sunshine Score — where to escape the northern winter.

#IslandCountryWinter sun /100Mean sea
1Gran CanariaSpain9322°C
2St. MaartenSint Maarten9129°C
3LanzaroteSpain9021°C
4FuerteventuraSpain9021°C
5ArubaAruba8928°C
6TenerifeSpain8922°C
7BarbadosBarbados8829°C
8BahamasBahamas8828°C
9La PalmaSpain8723°C
10MauiUnited States8626°C
11CuraçaoCuraçao8629°C
12AntiguaAntigua & Barbuda8529°C
13GuadeloupeGuadeloupe8429°C
14Hawaii (Big Island)United States8327°C
15RéunionRéunion8227°C
16OahuUnited States8226°C
17MauritiusMauritius8226°C
18ZanzibarTanzania8229°C
19JamaicaJamaica8229°C
20MartiniqueMartinique8129°C
21Isla MargaritaVenezuela8128°C
22Puerto RicoPuerto Rico8129°C
23MadeiraPortugal7822°C
24New CaledoniaNew Caledonia7826°C
25Sri LankaSri Lanka7530°C
26LangkawiMalaysia7431°C
27PhuketThailand7430°C
28SeychellesSeychelles7229°C
29PenangMalaysia7231°C
30Koh SamuiThailand7131°C
31CyprusCyprus6924°C
32BaliIndonesia6930°C
33FijiFiji6729°C
34CebuPhilippines6730°C
35MaltaMalta5922°C
36AzoresPortugal5920°C
37SicilyItaly5722°C
38CreteGreece5622°C
39RhodesGreece5522°C
40SantoriniGreece5521°C
41IbizaSpain5221°C
42MallorcaSpain5221°C
43SardiniaItaly5120°C
44SamosGreece4821°C
45ZakynthosGreece4821°C
46KefaloniaGreece4821°C
47KosGreece4722°C
48MenorcaSpain4721°C
49MykonosGreece4420°C
50CorfuGreece4322°C
51SkiathosGreece4120°C
52CorsicaFrance4020°C
53KythiraGreece3921°C
54GuernseyGuernsey1314°C
55JerseyJersey1114°C

Methodology

A curated set of the world's best-known holiday islands — islands aren't a field in the data, so the list is hand-picked and not exhaustive — each ranked by annual sunshine hours from long-term climate normals (NASA POWER, 2001–2020). Islands with more than one airport (Cyprus, Crete, Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, the Azores) are averaged into a single entry. Sea temperature is the annual mean where coastal data exists. See also the world's sunniest countries and sunniest cities in Europe.

Republish this data

Free to use under CC BY 4.0: credit Sunshine Atlas and link to this page. Download the full ranking as CSV: sunshine-atlas-sunniest-islands.csv (55 islands).

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