All countries that start with I: Area, Population & GDP

Explore countries that start with I and discover their area, population, and GDP. From Iceland to India, get insights into these diverse nations’ key statistics in this informative article with Emily E. Garrison!

Quick answer about countries that start with I

There are 10 all countries that start with I:

Country	Continent	Area	Population	GDP (nominal)
Iceland	North Atlantic Oceans	103,125 km2	376,248	$78,836
India	South Asia	3,287,263 km2	1,428,627,663	$2,612
Indonesia	Southeast Asia	1,904,569 km2	279,118,866	$5,108
Iran	West Asia	1,648,195 km2	87,590,873	$4,234
Iraq	West Asia	438,317 km2	43.5 million	$11,742
Ireland	North Atlantic Ocean	84,421 km2	7,052,314	N/A
Isle of Man (British dependency)	N/A	574 km2	84,069	N/A
Israel	West Asia	20,770–22,072 km2	9,805,280	N/A
Italy	Western Europe	301,340 km2	58,853,482	$37,146
Ivory Coast	West Africa	322,463 km2	29,344,847	$6,960

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Detailed information about all countries that start with I

Discover detailed information about countries that start with I, including their geography, culture, and history. Explore a wealth of facts and insights to satisfy your curiosity about these intriguing nations.

Iceland

• Continent: North Atlantic Oceans
• Capital: Reykjavík
• National language: Icelandic
• Religion: 72.4% Christianity, 25.2% no religion, 1.5% Ásatrúarfélagið, 0.9% other
• Area: 103,125 km2
• Population: 376,248
• Currency: Icelandic króna (ISK)
• GDP (nominal): $78,836 Per capita

Iceland (Icelandic: Ísland, pronounced [ˈistlant] ⓘ)[d] is a Nordic island country between the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is linked culturally and politically with Europe, and is the region’s most sparsely populated country. Its capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which is home to about 36% of the country’s roughly 380,000 residents. The official language of the country is Icelandic.

Located on a rift between tectonic plates, Iceland’s geologic activity includes geysers and frequent volcanic eruptions. The interior consists of a volcanic plateau characterised by sand and lava fields, mountains, and glaciers, and many glacial rivers flow to the sea through the lowlands. Iceland is warmed by the Gulf Stream and has a temperate climate, despite a latitude just south of the Arctic Circle. Its high latitude and marine influence keep summers chilly, and most of its islands have a polar climate.

According to the ancient manuscript Landnámabók, the settlement of Iceland began in 874 AD when the Norwegian chieftain Ingólfr Arnarson became the first permanent settler on the island. In the following centuries, Norwegians, and to a lesser extent other Scandinavians, immigrated to Iceland, bringing with them thralls (i.e., slaves or serfs) of Gaelic origin.

The island was governed as an independent commonwealth under the native parliament, the Althing, one of the world’s oldest functioning legislative assemblies. Following a period of civil strife, Iceland acceded to Norwegian rule in the 13th century. The establishment of the Kalmar Union in 1397 united the kingdoms of Norway, Denmark, and Sweden. Iceland thus followed Norway’s integration into that union, coming under Danish rule after Sweden seceded from the union in 1523. The Danish kingdom forcefully introduced Lutheranism to Iceland in 1550.

India

• Continent: South Asia
• Capital: New Delhi
• National language: Hindi
• Religion: 79.8% Hinduism, 14.2% Islam, 2.3% Christianity, 1.7% Sikhism, 0.7% Buddhism, 0.4% Jainism, 0.23% unaffiliated, 0.65% other
• Area: 3,287,263 km2
• Population: 1,428,627,663
• Currency: Indian rupee (₹) (INR)
• GDP (nominal): $2,612 Per capita

India, officially the Republic of India (ISO: Bhārat Gaṇarājya), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area; the most populous country as of June 2023; and from the time of its independence in 1947, the world’s most populous democracy. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west; China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north; and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east. 

In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives; its Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand, Myanmar, and Indonesia.

Modern humans arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa no later than 55,000 years ago. Their long occupation, initially in varying forms of isolation as hunter-gatherers, has made the region highly diverse, second only to Africa in human genetic diversity.

Settled life emerged on the subcontinent in the western margins of the Indus river basin 9,000 years ago, evolving gradually into the Indus Valley Civilisation of the third millennium BCE. By 1200 BCE, an archaic form of Sanskrit, an Indo-European language, had diffused into India from the northwest. 

Its evidence today is found in the hymns of the Rigveda. Preserved by an oral tradition that was resolutely vigilant, the Rigveda records the dawning of Hinduism in India. The Dravidian languages of India were supplanted in the northern and western regions. 

By 400 BCE, stratification and exclusion by caste had emerged within Hinduism, and Buddhism and Jainism had arisen, proclaiming social orders unlinked to heredity. Early political consolidations gave rise to the loose-knit Maurya and Gupta Empires based in the Ganges Basin. 

Their collective era was suffused with wide-ranging creativity, but also marked by the declining status of women, and the incorporation of untouchability into an organised system of belief. In South India, the Middle kingdoms exported Dravidian-languages scripts and religious cultures to the kingdoms of Southeast Asia.

Indonesia

• Continent: Southeast Asia
• Capital: Jakarta
• National language: Indonesian
• Religion: 87% Islam, 10.5% Christianity, 1.7% Hinduism, 0.7% Buddhism, 0.1% Folk, Confucianism, and other
• Area: 1,904,569 km2
• Population: 279,118,866
• Currency: Indonesian rupiah (Rp) (IDR)
• GDP (nominal): $5,108 Per capita

Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia (Indonesian: Republik Indonesia), is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guinea. Indonesia is the world’s largest archipelagic state and the 14th-largest country by area, at 1,904,569 square kilometres (735,358 square miles). 

With around 279 million people, Indonesia is the world’s fourth-most populous country and the most populous Muslim-majority country. Java, the world’s most populous island, is home to more than half of the country’s population.

Indonesia is a presidential republic with an elected legislature. It has 38 provinces, of which nine have special status. The country’s capital, Jakarta, is the world’s second-most populous urban area. Indonesia shares land borders with Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and the eastern part of Malaysia, as well as maritime borders with Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Australia, Palau, and India. Despite its large population and densely populated regions, Indonesia has vast areas of wilderness that support one of the world’s highest levels of biodiversity.

The Indonesian archipelago has been a valuable region for trade since at least the seventh century when the Srivijaya and later Majapahit Kingdoms traded with entities from mainland China and the Indian subcontinent. Local rulers gradually absorbed foreign influences from the early centuries, and Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms flourished. Muslim traders later brought Islam, and European powers fought one another to monopolise trade in the Spice Islands of Maluku during the Age of Discovery. 

Following three and a half centuries of Dutch colonialism, Indonesia secured its independence after World War II. Indonesia’s history has since been turbulent, with challenges posed by natural disasters, corruption, separatism, a democratisation process, and periods of rapid economic change.

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Iran

• Continent: West Asia
• Capital: Tehran
• National language: Persian
• Religion: Shia Islam
• Area: 1,648,195 km2
• Population: 87,590,873
• Currency: Iranian rial (ریال) (IRR)
• GDP (nominal): $4,234 Per capita

Iran, also known as Persia and officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI), is a country in West Asia (Near Europe). It is bordered by Iraq to the west and Turkey to the northwest, Azerbaijan, Armenia, the Caspian Sea and Turkmenistan to the north, Afghanistan to the east, Pakistan to the southeast, the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf to the south. It covers an area of 1.64 million square kilometers (0.63 million square miles), making it the 17th-largest country only behind Libya. 

With an estimated population of around 87 million as of 2023, Iran is the world’s 17th-most populous country, and the second largest country in the Middle East. Its capital and largest city is Tehran with around 16 million people in its metropolitan area.

Iran is home to one of the world’s oldest civilizations, beginning with the formation of the Elamite kingdoms in the fourth millennium BC. It was first unified by the Medes in the seventh century BC and reached its territorial height in the sixth century BC, when Cyrus the Great founded the Achaemenid Empire. 

Alexander the Great conquered the empire in the fourth century BC and it was subsequently divided into several Hellenistic states. An Iranian rebellion established the Parthian Empire in the third century BC, which was succeeded in the third century AD by the Sasanian Empire. Arab Muslims conquered the empire in the seventh century AD, leading to its Islamization; Iran thereafter became a major center of Islamic culture and learning. 

Over the next two centuries, a series of native Iranian Muslim dynasties emerged before the Seljuk Turks and the Mongols conquered the region. In the 16th century, the native Safavids re-established a unified Iranian state. Under the reign of Nader Shah in the 18th century, Iran presided over the most powerful military in the world, though by the 19th century, a series of conflicts with the Russian Empire led to significant territorial losses. 

The early 20th century saw the Persian Constitutional Revolution. Efforts to nationalize its fossil fuel supply led to an Anglo-American coup in 1953. After the Iranian Revolution, the current Islamic Republic was established in 1979 by Ruhollah Khomeini, who became the country’s first supreme leader.

Iraq

• Continent: West Asia
• Capital: Baghdad
• National language: Arabic 
• Religion: 95-98% Islam
• Area: 438,317 km2
• Population: 43.5 million
• Currency: Iraqi dinar (IQD)
• GDP (nominal): $11,742 Per capita

Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in the Middle East. It is a federal parliamentary republic that consists of 19 governorates. The country is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and Kuwait to the southeast, Saudi Arabia to the south, Jordan to the southwest and Syria to the west. 

The capital and largest city is Baghdad. The Iraqi people are diverse, with similarly diverse geography and wildlife. Most Iraqis are Muslims – minority faiths include Christianity, Yazidism, Mandaeism, Yarsanism and Zoroastrianism. The official languages of Iraq are Arabic and Kurdish; others also recognised in specific regions are Turkish (Turkmen), Suret (Assyrian), and Armenian. Iraq is the 33rd most-populous country in the world.

Starting as early as the 6th millennium BC, the fertile alluvial plains between Iraq’s Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, referred to as Mesopotamia, gave rise to some of the world’s earliest cities, civilisations, and empires in Sumer, Akkad, and Assyria. Mesopotamia was a “Cradle of Civilisation” that saw the inventions of a writing system, mathematics, timekeeping, a calendar, astrology, and a law code.

Following the Muslim conquest of Mesopotamia, Baghdad became the capital and the largest city of the Abbasid Caliphate, and during the Islamic Golden Age, the city evolved into a significant cultural and intellectual centre, and garnered it a worldwide reputation for its academic institutions, including the House of Wisdom. The city was largely destroyed at the hands of the Mongol Empire in 1258 during the siege of Baghdad, resulting in a decline that would linger through many centuries due to frequent plagues and multiple successive empires.

Ireland

• Continent: North Atlantic Ocean
• National language: English – Irish
• Area: 84,421 km2
• Population: 7,052,314

Ireland (/ˈaɪərlənd/ ⓘ YRE-lənd; Irish: Éire [ˈeːɾʲə] ⓘ; Ulster-Scots: Airlann [ˈɑːrlən]) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George’s Channel. Ireland is the second-largest island of the British Isles, the third-largest in Europe, and the twentieth-largest in the world.

Geopolitically, the island of Ireland is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially named Ireland), an independent state covering five-sixths of the island, and Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom. As of 2022, the population of the entire island is just over 7 million, with 5.1 million living in the Republic of Ireland and 1.9 million in Northern Ireland, ranking it the second-most populous island in Europe after Great Britain.

The geography of Ireland comprises relatively low-lying mountains surrounding a central plain, with several navigable rivers extending inland. Its lush vegetation is a product of its mild but changeable climate which is free of extremes in temperature. Much of Ireland was woodland until the end of the Middle Ages. 

Today, woodland makes up about 10% of the island, compared with a European average of over 33%, with most of it being non-native conifer plantations. The Irish climate is influenced by the Atlantic Ocean and thus very moderate, and winters are milder than expected for such a northerly area, although summers are cooler than those in continental Europe. Rainfall and cloud cover are abundant.

Gaelic Ireland had emerged by the 1st century AD. The island was Christianised from the 5th century onwards. Following the 12th century Anglo-Norman invasion, England claimed sovereignty. However, English rule did not extend over the whole island until the 16th–17th century Tudor conquest, which led to colonisation by settlers from Britain. 

In the 1690s, a system of Protestant English rule was designed to materially disadvantage the Catholic majority and Protestant dissenters, and was extended during the 18th century. With the Acts of Union in 1801, Ireland became a part of the United Kingdom. A war of independence in the early 20th century was followed by the partition of the island, leading to the creation of the Irish Free State, which became increasingly sovereign over the following decades, and Northern Ireland, which remained a part of the United Kingdom. 

Northern Ireland saw much civil unrest from the late 1960s until the 1990s. This subsided following the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. In 1973, both the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom, with Northern Ireland as part of it, joined the European Economic Community. 

Following a referendum vote in 2016, the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland included, left the European Union (EU) in 2020. Northern Ireland was granted a limited special status and allowed to operate within the EU single market for goods without being in the European Union; the economy has subsequently grown faster than the rest of the UK.

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Isle of Man (British dependency)

• Capital: Douglas
• National language: English – Manx
• Religion: 54.7% Christianity, 43.8% no religion, 0.5% Islam, 0.5% Buddhism, 0.3% Hinduism, 0.1% Judaism, 0.2% other
• Area: 574 km2
• Population: 84,069
• Currency: Pound sterling Manx pound (£) (GBP)

The Isle of Man (Manx: Mannin [ˈmanɪnʲ], also Ellan Vannin [ˈɛlʲan ˈvanɪnʲ]), also known as Mann (/mæn/), is a self-governing British Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea between Great Britain and Ireland. As head of state, Charles III holds the title Lord of Mann and is represented by a Lieutenant Governor. The government of the United Kingdom is responsible for the isle’s military defence and represents it abroad.

Humans have lived on the island since before 6500 BC. Gaelic cultural influence began in the 5th century AD, when Irish missionaries following the teaching of St. Patrick began settling the island, and the Manx language, a branch of the Goidelic languages, emerged. In 627, King Edwin of Northumbria conquered the Isle of Man along with most of Mercia. In the 9th century, Norsemen established the thalassocratic Kingdom of the Isles, which included the Isle of Man. Magnus III, King of Norway from 1093 to 1103, reigned as King of Mann and the Isles between 1099 and 1103.

In 1266, King Magnus VI of Norway sold his suzerainty over Mann to King Alexander III of Scotland under the Treaty of Perth. After a period of alternating rule by the Kings of Scotland and England, the island came under the feudal lordship of the English Crown in 1399. The lordship revested in the British Crown in 1765, but the island did not become part of the 18th-century Kingdom of Great Britain, nor of its successors, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the present-day United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. 

It has always retained its internal self-government. In 1881, the Isle of Man Parliament, Tynwald, became the first national legislative body in the world to give women the right to vote in a general election, although this excluded married women.

Israel

• Continent: West Asia
• Capital: Jerusalem
• National language: Hebrew
• Area: 20,770–22,072 km2
• Population: 9,805,280
• Currency: New shekel (₪) (ILS)
• GDP (nominal): $53,195 Per capita

Israel (/ˈɪzri.əl, -reɪ-/; Hebrew: יִשְׂרָאֵל Yisrāʾēl [jisʁaˈʔel]; Arabic: إِسْرَائِيل ʾIsrāʾīl), officially the State of Israel (מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל Medīnat Yisrāʾēl [mediˈnat jisʁaˈʔel]; دَوْلَة إِسْرَائِيل Dawlat Isrāʾīl), is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Lebanon to the north, by Syria to the northeast, by Jordan to the east, by the Red Sea to the south, by Egypt to the southwest, by the Mediterranean Sea to the west, and by the Palestinian territories – the West Bank along the east and the Gaza Strip along the southwest. 

Tel Aviv is the financial, economic, and technological center of the country, while its seat of government is in its proclaimed capital of Jerusalem, although Israeli sovereignty over both West and East Jerusalem is unrecognized internationally.

Israel is located in the Southern Levant, a region known historically as Canaan, the Land of Israel, Palestine and the Holy Land. In antiquity, it was home to several Israelite and Jewish kingdoms, including Israel and Judah and Hasmonean Judea. Over the ages, the region was ruled by imperial powers such as the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans. During Roman rule, Jews became a minority in Palestine. 

The region later came under Byzantine and Arab rule. In the medieval period, it was part of the Islamic caliphates, the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, and the Ottoman Empire. The late 19th century saw the rise of Zionism, a movement advocating for the establishment of a Jewish homeland, during which the Jewish people began purchasing land in Palestine. 

Under the British Mandate by the League of Nations after World War I, Jewish immigration to the region increased considerably, leading to tensions between Jews and the Arab majority population. The UN-approved 1947 partition plan triggered a civil war between these two peoples. The British terminated the Mandate on 14 May 1948, and Israel declared independence on the same day.

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Italy

• Continent: Western Europe
• Capital: Rome
• National language: Italian
• Religion: 84.4% Christianity, 11.6% no religion, 1.0% Islam, 3.0% other
• Area: 301,340 km2
• Population: 58,853,482
• Currency: Euro (€)b (EUR)
• GDP (nominal): $37,146 Per capita

Italy (Italian: Italia [iˈtaːlja] ⓘ), officially the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern and Western Europe. Located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, it consists of a peninsula delimited by the Alps and surrounded by several islands. Italy shares land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia and the enclaved microstates of Vatican City and San Marino. 

It has a territorial exclave in Switzerland (Campione) and an archipelago in the African Plate (Pelagie Islands). Italy covers an area of 301,340 km2 (116,350 sq mi), with a population of nearly 60 million; it is the tenth-largest country by land area in the European continent and the third-most populous member state of the European Union. Its capital and largest city is Rome.

The Italian peninsula was historically the native place and destination of numerous ancient peoples. The Latin city of Rome in central Italy, founded as a Kingdom, became a Republic that conquered the Mediterranean world and ruled it for centuries as an Empire. With the spread of Christianity, Rome became the seat of the Catholic Church and of the Papacy. 

During the Early Middle Ages, Italy experienced the fall of the Western Roman Empire and inward migration from Germanic tribes. By the 11th century, Italian city-states and maritime republics expanded, bringing renewed prosperity through commerce and laying the groundwork for modern capitalism. The Italian Renaissance flourished in Florence during the 15th and 16th centuries and spread to the rest of Europe. 

Italian explorers also discovered new routes to the Far East and the New World, helping to usher in the European Age of Discovery. However, centuries of rivalry and infighting between the Italian city-states among other factors left the peninsula divided into numerous states until the late modern period. During the during the 17th and 18th centuries, the Italian economic and commercial importance significantly waned.

Ivory Coast

• Continent: West Africa
• Capital: Yamoussoukro
• National language: French
• Area: 322,463 km2
• Population: 29,344,847
• Currency: West African CFA franc (XOF)
• GDP (nominal): $6,960 Per capita

Ivory Coast, officially the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, also known as Côte d’Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is the port city of Abidjan. It borders Guinea to the northwest, Liberia to the west, Mali to the northwest, Burkina Faso to the northeast, Ghana to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea (Atlantic Ocean) to the south. 

Its official language is French, and indigenous languages are also widely used, including Bété, Baoulé, Dioula, Dan, Anyin, and Cebaara Senufo. In total, there are around 78 different languages spoken in Ivory Coast. The country has a religiously diverse population, including numerous followers of Islam, Christianity, and traditional faiths like Animism.

Before its colonization, Ivory Coast was home to several states, including Gyaaman, the Kong Empire, and Baoulé. The area became a protectorate of France in 1843 and was consolidated as a French colony in 1893 amid the Scramble for Africa. It achieved independence in 1960, led by Félix Houphouët-Boigny, who ruled the country until 1993. 

Relatively stable by regional standards, Ivory Coast established close political-economic ties with its West African neighbours while maintaining close relations with the West, especially France. Its stability was diminished by a coup d’état in 1999 and two civil wars—first between 2002 and 2007[9] and again during 2010–2011. It adopted a new constitution in 2016.

Ivory Coast is a republic with strong executive power vested in its president. Through the production of coffee and cocoa, it was an economic powerhouse in West Africa during the 1960s and 1970s, then experienced an economic crisis in the 1980s, contributing to a period of political and social turmoil that extended until 2011. 

Ivory Coast has experienced again high economic growth since the return of peace and political stability in 2011. From 2012 to 2021, the economy grew by an average of 7.4% per year in real terms, the second-fastest rate of economic growth in Africa and fourth-fastest rate in the world. In 2020, Ivory Coast was the world’s largest exporter of cocoa beans and had high levels of income for its region. The economy still relies heavily on agriculture, with smallholder cash-crop production predominating.

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FAQs about countries that start with I

Got questions about countries that start with I? Check out our FAQs for quick answers to common queries about these countries’ capitals, languages, and more. Your one-stop resource for all things related to countries that start with I.

Which country starts with the letter I has the largest area?

Among all the countries in the world that begin with the letter I, India stands out as a remarkable and vast nation, boasting an expansive landmass that covers an impressive 3,287,263 square kilometers. This substantial area makes India not only the most extensive ‘I’-initiated country but also one of the largest countries on the planet. To put this expanse into perspective, it’s essential to understand the diversity and geographical features that make up this vast subcontinent.

Which country starts with the letter I has the largest population?

Among all the countries in the world whose names begin with the letter I, India stands out as the most populous. As of the latest available data, India boasts an astonishing population of 1,428,627,663 people. This colossal number not only underscores the sheer size and diversity of the nation but also highlights the unique challenges and opportunities that such a vast population presents.

Which country starts with the letter I has the largest GDP (nominal)?

When we look at the group of countries whose names start with the letter I, Iceland stands out as a remarkable example of economic prosperity. With a nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $78,836 per capita, Iceland leads the pack among its alphabetical peers. This figure reflects the total economic output of the country divided by its population, highlighting the relatively high standard of living that Icelanders enjoy.

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In this article, we’ve delved into the vital data of countries that start with I, shedding light on their respective areas, populations, and GDP figures. These insights offer a glimpse into the economic and demographic landscapes of a diverse group of nations.