When asked which country has the most islands, many people guess Indonesia or the Philippines. Surprisingly, the correct answer is Sweden. Sweden is home to an incredible 267,570 islands. While many of these are tiny, uninhabited outcrops, about 984 are inhabited. Finland follows closely in second place with approximately 178,947 islands. In contrast, Indonesia, often considered the world's premier archipelagic state, has roughly 17,508 islands. The high number of islands in Scandinavia is due to post-glacial rebound; the land is still rising after the weight of the last ice age's glaciers was removed, causing new islands to 'emerge' from the sea over thousands of years.