Which domain extensions belong to islands?

Why are so many popular short endings islands?

Every two-letter ending is a country code. IANA, which keeps the root of the domain system, built the list on the ISO 3166 standard of countries and territories. RFC 1591, written in 1994, says IANA does not decide what counts as a country. It follows the ISO list.

That choice has a side effect. A territory with a small population gets the same kind of ending as a large country. When two letters spell something useful, such as AI, IO, GG, TV or ME, the registry can sell the ending to buyers all over the world.

Demand has grown. The .ai ending had about one million domains under management in early 2026, according to Domain Name Wire. Many small registries also hire a technical operator to run the systems. Anguilla owns the .ai ending, and Identity Digital runs it for the Government of Anguilla.

Pearlcay counted the operators in this index on 2 November 2026: Identity Digital or its subsidiary Internet Computer Bureau runs the systems of 5 of the 15 extensions (.ai, .io, .sh, .ac and .vc), and co-owns the operator of a sixth, .me.

What does sovereign status change?

Eleven of our extensions belong to islands, and they fall into three groups.

• Independent states (5 extensions): Tuvalu (.tv), Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (.vc), Micronesia (.fm), Samoa (.ws) and Palau (.pw). All five are United Nations members.
• British territories (4 extensions): Anguilla (.ai), the British Indian Ocean Territory (.io), Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha (.sh) and Ascension Island (.ac), which is part of that same territory.
• Other dependencies (2 extensions): Guernsey (.gg), a self-governing Crown Dependency that is not part of the UK, and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands (.cc), an external territory of Australia.

Status matters because a registry answers to the government of its place. If the status of a place changes, the future of its ending can come into question. The Chagos case below shows how.

Which of our extensions are not islands?

Four of them. The .co ending belongs to Colombia, .me to Montenegro, .so to Somalia and .la to Laos. All four are mainland countries and United Nations members.

They sit in the index because they work like the island codes: two letters, sold worldwide. Colombia's information ministry (MinTIC) oversees .co. Since 3 October 2025, the day-to-day operator is CentralNic, a subsidiary of Team Internet Group, according to the .co registry.

Who earns the money from island domains?

Registries are paid by the registrars that sell the names. Only a few publish figures. These are the ones we could source.

Can an island registry change its rules?

Yes, and the rules are not the same everywhere. The .ai registry requires registrations and renewals of at least 2 years, so a first order costs twice the yearly price: $173.98 at Pearlcay. Read why .ai takes 2 years for the rule.

Operators change too. The .co registry moved to a new technical operator on 3 October 2025. Small registries can also review some applications by hand. Our registration time: usually within minutes of the top-up being credited; a few island registries (.gg among them) can take up to a day to confirm a new name.

For an owner, the useful habit is to read the renewal price and the minimum term before buying, not only the first-year price. .ai over 10 years shows what that means in dollars.

Can wholesale prices of island domains rise?

Yes. Two island registries announced rises in 2026, and Pearlcay lists the new cost. A term you have already paid keeps the price you paid for it.

What happens to .io if the Chagos Islands change hands?

The .io ending belongs to the British Indian Ocean Territory, which is the Chagos Islands. The UK agreed to hand the territory to Mauritius. The plan is now on hold.

• 13 April 2026: DomainIncite reported that the UK had frozen the plan. It had run out of time to pass the law, and the US had not given the written consent the treaty needs. Diego Garcia hosts a US-UK military base.
• 21 July 2026: Domain Name Wire still described the deal as on ice for now.
• ICANN's position: the IO code stays in the ISO 3166-1 standard until that standard changes. If a code were ever removed, ICANN's retirement policy would open a five-year window, which can be extended. A change of sovereignty does not by itself end an ending (ICANN, 14 November 2024).

As of 2 November 2026, we found no source showing a change to .io. It works as before, and its wholesale price rises on 19 January 2027. Retired country-code domains covers the past cases.

Can I reuse this index?

Yes. The island domain index is published under CC BY 4.0. Copy the table, quote the figures, build on them. Credit "Pearlcay island domain index, 2 November 2026" and link to this page.

The prices in the last column come from our price list and change when a registry changes its cost. The pricing page always shows the current grid.