Far Off
Perth is the most isolated major city on Earth: the nearest settlement of more than 100,000 people, Adelaide, is 2,132 km away. Drop the population floor entirely and the title goes to Adamstown on Pitcairn, 540 km from the nearest inhabited land.
The criterion decides the ranking. Distance to the nearest comparable city, distance to the nearest inhabited land, distance to a continent, whether a road reaches the place at all: each produces a different order. The main measure used here is great-circle distance to the nearest inhabited place of at least comparable size. Each entry states what is being measured.
| City | Population | Distance | To |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adamstown (Pitcairn) | ~35 to 50 | 540 km | Mangareva |
| Edinburgh of the Seven Seas (Tristan da Cunha) | ~220 | 2,434 km | Jamestown, St Helena |
| Hanga Roa (Easter Island) | ~7,300 | 2,075 km | Pitcairn |
| Perth | ~2.1 to 2.5M | 2,132 km | Adelaide |
| Honolulu | 350,964 | 3,857 km | San Francisco |
| Iquitos | ~470,000 | 1,030 km | Lima |
| Norilsk | 176,735 | 1,500 km | Krasnoyarsk |
| Iqaluit | ~7,400 to 8,700 | 2,090 km | Ottawa |
| Longyearbyen | ~2,500 | 958 km | Tromsø |
| Punta Arenas | ~132,000 | 205 km | Río Gallegos |
1. Adamstown, Pitcairn Islands
Adamstown is the only settlement in the Pitcairn Islands, a British Overseas Territory in the South Pacific. Its population runs between 35 and about 50 depending on the count. The nearest inhabited land is Mangareva in French Polynesia, 540 km away as the crow flies, 688 km by the sea route actually used.
Detail. There is no airstrip. You arrive by ship from Mangareva, itself reached by air from Tahiti, which in practice means a handful of sailings a month at best. Fewer people land on Pitcairn in a year than summit Everest.
2. Edinburgh of the Seven Seas, Tristan da Cunha
The settlement holds roughly 220 to 240 people on the island’s only flat ground. The nearest inhabited place is Jamestown on St Helena, 2,434 km away. Cape Town is 2,816 km off.
Detail. There is no runway. Access is by ship only, usually from Cape Town, six to seven days at sea. This is the settlement most often given the title of most remote permanent habitation on Earth, and it holds up if you measure to the nearest inhabited place rather than the nearest continent.
3. Hanga Roa, Easter Island
Hanga Roa is home to roughly 95 per cent of Rapa Nui’s residents, a little over 7,300 people. The nearest inhabited land is Pitcairn, 2,075 km to the west. The nearest continental point is in Chile near Concepción, 3,512 km away.
Detail. Easter Island often beats Tristan da Cunha in popular rankings, wrongly. It is further from a continent but closer to other inhabited land, and it has an airport with scheduled flights from Santiago. Measured isolation and lived isolation are not the same thing here.
4. Perth, Australia
Greater Perth held 2.1 million people at the 2021 census and is projected at roughly 2.5 million for 2025-26. The nearest city above 100,000, Adelaide, is 2,132 km away. Nothing of that size comes within 2,000 km.
Detail. Perth is the standard answer to this question, but the title depends on the population threshold. Require a city of a million or more and Perth’s nearest neighbour is still Adelaide (about 1.47 million in 2024) at 2,132 km, while Auckland’s nearest million-plus neighbour is Sydney at roughly 2,159 km. On that measure Auckland edges ahead.
5. Honolulu, Hawaii
Honolulu recorded 350,964 residents at the 2020 census. The nearest mainland city of any size is San Francisco, 3,857 km away. Nothing comparable sits within 3,500 km in any direction.
Detail. This is the record among cities above 300,000 people. Honolulu holds a different title from Perth’s: Perth is isolated from cities of similar size, Honolulu is isolated from any continent at all. The two are argued over because they are not measuring the same thing.
6. Iquitos, Peru
Iquitos has around 470,000 people in its metropolitan area and connects to no national road network. Lima is 1,030 km away. You get there by plane, or by boat up the Amazon, which takes days from the coast.
Detail. It is the largest city on Earth that cannot be reached by road. One road leaves Iquitos, running about a hundred kilometres to Nauta, and joins nothing. Iquitos’s isolation does not show up on a distance map, only on a road map.
7. Norilsk, Russia
Norilsk had 176,735 residents in 2024. It sits 1,500 km north of Krasnoyarsk with no road and no railway linking it to the rest of Russia. Access is by air, or by boat up the Yenisei, more than three days of sailing.
Detail. It is the northernmost city above 100,000 people anywhere, and one of the few large cities closed to foreigners without prior permission. Its isolation is industrial before it is geographic: the city exists for the nickel and palladium under it.
8. Iqaluit, Canada
The capital of Nunavut recorded 7,429 residents at the 2021 census, with recent estimates nearer 8,700. Ottawa is 2,090 km away. No road connects Iqaluit to any other community, in Nunavut or in southern Canada.
Detail. Nunavut has no inter-community highway network at all. Heavy freight arrives by sealift during the summer window; everything else flies in year-round, which is why grocery prices run two to three times southern Canadian levels.
9. Longyearbyen, Svalbard
About 2,500 people live in Longyearbyen. Tromsø, on the Norwegian mainland, is 958 km away, a ninety-minute flight. It is the northernmost settlement of more than 1,000 people in the world.
Detail. A few places sit further north, including Ny-Ålesund on the same archipelago, but those are research stations rather than towns. The Svalbard Treaty lets nationals of signatory countries settle without a visa, which gives this Arctic village residents from around fifty countries.
10. Punta Arenas, Chile
Punta Arenas had roughly 132,000 residents in 2024. Santiago is 2,192 km away. But the nearest city above 100,000 is not Chilean: it is Río Gallegos in Argentina, 205 km away in a straight line, 261 km by road.
Detail. Punta Arenas is the best counter-example on this list. Within Chile it is cut off by the fjords, with no continuous road to Santiago. Measured without regard to borders it is barely isolated at all. The ranking changes depending on whether the nearest neighbour is allowed to be foreign.
Which criterion you are actually using
Four measures circulate, and they do not produce the same podium.
- Distance to the nearest city of a given size. Perth’s criterion. It hinges entirely on the threshold: 100,000, 500,000 and one million pick different winners.
- Distance to the nearest inhabited land. Tristan da Cunha’s and Adamstown’s criterion. It favours very small islands.
- Distance to the nearest continent. The measure that hands the title to Easter Island, 3,512 km from Chile.
- Actual reachability. Iquitos, Norilsk and Iqaluit are not the furthest in kilometres, but none has a road. Travel time and cost often matter more than distance.
A ranking that hides its criterion cannot be checked. The same caution applies to the closest countries in the world, where the order flips depending on whether land borders count.
The near misses
Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, had 20,113 residents in January 2025 and sits 1,437 km from Reykjavik. It is severely isolated in practice, but several Greenlandic settlements are closer to it than Reykjavik is.
Ushuaia in Argentina claims the title of southernmost city, but Punta Arenas is only about 250 km away in a straight line. Darwin, Australia, is roughly 2,650 km from Perth and 2,850 km from Brisbane, which would make it a serious contender at a lower population threshold.
Isolation is measured in hours too
Three cities on this list can only be reached by air or water: Iquitos, Norilsk and Iqaluit. A fourth, Adamstown, has no airstrip at all. In those cases the great-circle distance badly understates the isolation: 540 km from Mangareva can mean weeks of waiting for a ship.
The reverse happens too. Perth is 2,132 km from Adelaide, and a direct flight covers it in about three hours, several times a day. It is the same mismatch between map and calendar found on the longest train journeys in the world, where seven days of rail covers what a plane does in nine hours.
The mirror piece: the closest countries in the world. Going further: the 10 longest flights in the world, the longest train journeys in the world and the longest straight line on Earth.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most isolated city in the world?
It depends on the population floor. Among major cities the usual answer is Perth: the nearest city above 100,000 people, Adelaide, is 2,132 km away. Among settlements of any size it is Adamstown on Pitcairn, 540 km from the nearest inhabited land. Honolulu holds a third title, the city above 300,000 people that is furthest from any continent, at 3,857 km from San Francisco.
Why is Perth considered the most isolated city?
Because no comparable city sits within 2,000 km of it. Adelaide, at 2,132 km, is the closest. Darwin is roughly 2,650 km away. Between Perth and the rest of Australia lies the Nullarbor Plain, essentially empty. The title is contested by Auckland, whose nearest million-plus neighbour, Sydney, is about 2,159 km away.
What is the most remote inhabited settlement on Earth?
Adamstown on Pitcairn Island, with 35 to 50 residents and 540 km of ocean to Mangareva. With no airstrip, access is by ship only, along a 688 km sea route. Edinburgh of the Seven Seas on Tristan da Cunha is often named instead: it is larger at roughly 220 people and 2,434 km from the nearest inhabited place, but Adamstown remains the harder of the two to reach.
What is the biggest city with no road access?
Iquitos in Peru, with around 470,000 people in its metropolitan area. A single road runs about a hundred kilometres to Nauta and connects to no national network. You reach the city by air from Lima, 1,030 km away, or by boat on the Amazon. Norilsk in Russia is in the same position, with 176,735 residents and neither road nor rail linking it to the rest of the country.
What is the northernmost city in the world?
Longyearbyen on Svalbard, with about 2,500 residents, is the northernmost settlement above 1,000 people. It lies 958 km from Tromsø. Places further north exist, including Ny-Ålesund on the same archipelago and Alert in Canada, but those are research and military stations rather than towns. Among cities above 100,000 people, the title belongs to Norilsk.