Stretching at 1,839 kilometers from the Batanes Islands in the North to Tawi-Tawi in the South, the Philippines has a total land area of 300,000 square kilometers, slightly larger than the United Kingdom or Germany. Ninety-six percent of the total land area is taken up by 11 major islands : Luzon, Mindanao, Samar, Negros, Palawan, Panay, Mindoro, Leyte, Cebu, Bohol, and Masbate.
Consisting of more than 7,100 islands, islets, rocks, and sand-bars that form the archipelago, the Philippines is also one of the largest island-groupings in world.