Great Britain, also known as Britain , is an island in the North Atlantic off the north-west coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest island in Europe and the ninth-largest in the world. In 2011 the island had a population of about 61 million people, making it the third-most populous island in the world, after Java in Indonesia and Honshu in Japan. It is part of the British Isles archipelago along with over 1,000 smaller surrounding islands, including the island of Ireland to its west.