The Big Island is Not Twice as Big the Other Islands Combined
The Big Island of Hawai‘i is big, but not twice as big as all the other Hawaiian Islands combined, as is often stated (see quotes below). This is an example of a factoid. A factoid is a untruth that is repeated over and over again as though it were true, that is becomes commonly accepted as fact, despite being untrue. See my facts and figures based on reality, not word of mouth, myth or exaggeration.

The 10 quotes below are examples of misinformation and distortion from the internet and verified on October 16, 2009, however the websites may have changed.
The quotes below are still on the websites, as of January 31, 2011.
hawaiiforvisitors.com says "...more then twice the size of all of the other islands combined."
hawaiianencyclopedia.com says "...twice as big as the rest of the Hawaiian Islands combined..."
virginholidays.co.uk says "...twice as big as the others combined."
go-hawaiian-islands.com says "...twice as big as all the other Hawaiian Islands combined"
alternative-hawaii.com says "... it is twice the combined size of the other islands"
worldgolf.com says says "...twice as big as the rest of the islands combined."
101thingstodo.com says "...twice as large as all the other Hawaiian Islands combined..."
hawaii-guide.com says "...the other islands in the main Hawaiian chain could fit inside it twice."
hiltonwaikoloavillage.com says "...an area twice as big as all the other Hawaiian Islands combined..."
expedia.com says "...twice the size of all the other islands combined..."

It was refreshing and interesting to see bigisland.org write "...our island is larger than all the other islands combined." A true and correct statement that does not exaggerate.

One website, which will go unnamed, tried to squirm out of admitting their mistake by saying they meant twice as big as the other “main islands”, presumably they disregarded a few islands as not being "main islands." If you exclude Moloka‘i, Lāna‘i and Kaho‘olawe as "main islands" than the Big Island of Hawai‘i is more than twice as big. Maybe even exclude Ni‘ihau to make it even more so, but all of those islands are "main islands."

There are eight “main” islands as represented by the eight horizontal stripes on the State flag and I give their sizes below. The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI), which are part of the state of Hawai‘i (except Midway Island, a 2.4 square mile Federal territory), are usually not considered in such a comparison, but whether or not you consider the NWHI is fairly insignificant, since the area of all of them combined is less than four square miles in size.

Main island land sizes (and their color and emblem):
69.5 sq. miles - Ni‘ihau (white; the Ni‘ihau shell Columbella)
552.3 sq. miles - Kaua‘i (purple; pua mokihana, the fruit of the Pelea anisata)
597.1 sq. miles - O‘ahu (yellow; pua ‘ilima)
260.0 sq. miles - Moloka‘i (green; pua kukui)
140.6 sq. miles - Lāna‘i (orange; pua kauna‘oa)
44.6 sq. miles - Kaho‘olawe (gray; pua hinahina)
727.3 sq. miles - Maui (pink; pua lokelani)
4,028.2 sq. miles - Big Island (red; pua lehua)

6,419.6 sq. miles - Total land area of the eight main islands
6,423.4 sq. miles - Total land area of the State of Hawai‘i, which is the entire archipelago from Kure Atoll to the "Big Island" of Hawai‘i minus Midway Island (unincorporated federal territory).

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