Indonesia comprises 17,508 islands according to Indonesian government estimates, with about 6,000 of those inhabited. The country extends from adjacent the Malay Peninsula in its west and into Melanesia in its east. According to a 2002 survey by National Institute of Aeronautics and Space (LAPAN), Indonesia has 18,306 islands. Counting tidal islands (periodically submerged) doubles the island figure, and many islands with no name or the same names, making it very confusing even to the government of Indonesia.
