Revillagigedo Island is an island

Island

An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...

 in the Alexander Archipelago

Alexander Archipelago

The Alexander Archipelago is a long archipelago, or group of islands, of North America off the southeastern coast of Alaska. It contains about 1,100 islands, which are the tops of the submerged coastal mountains that rise steeply from the Pacific Ocean. Deep channels and fjords separate the...

 in Ketchikan Gateway Borough

Ketchikan Gateway Borough, Alaska

As of the census of 2000, there were 14,070 people, 5,399 households, and 3,633 families residing in the borough. The population density was 11 people per square mile . There were 6,218 housing units at an average density of 5 per square mile...

 of the southeastern region

Alaska Panhandle

Southeast Alaska, sometimes referred to as the Alaska Panhandle, is the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Alaska, which lies west of the northern half of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The majority of Southeast Alaska's area is part of the Tongass National Forest, the United...

 of the U.S. state

U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

 of Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

. Running about 89 km (50 mi) north-south and 48 km (35 mi) east-west, it is 2,754.835 km² (1,063.65 mi²) in area, making it the 12th largest island in the United States and the 166th largest island in the world. Its center is located near 55°38′03"N 131°17′51"W.

The island is separated from the Alaska mainland to the east by Behm Canal

Behm Canal

Behm Canal is a channel in the Alexander Archipelago, in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Alaska.About long, Behm Canal separates Revillagigedo Island from the mainland...

, from Prince of Wales Island to the west by the Clarence Strait

Clarence Strait

Clarence Strait, originally Duke of Clarence Strait, is a strait in southeastern Alaska, in the United States in the Alexander Archipelago. The strait separates Prince of Wales Island, on the west side, from Revillagigedo Island and Annette Island, on the east side...

, and from Annette Island

Annette Island

Annette Island, or Taak'w Aan, is an island in Gravina Islands of the Alexander Archipelago of the Pacific Ocean on the southeastern coast of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is at . It is about long and about wide. The land area is...

 to the south by Revillagigedo Channel

Revillagigedo Channel

Revillagigedo Channel is an ocean channel in the Alexander Archipelago of the U.S. state of Alaska. Extending 56 km northwest from the Dixon Entrance, it lies between the mainland to the east, Revillagigedo Island to the north, and Duke Island and Annette Island to the southwest...

 and Nichols Passage. The first Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

an to sight it was Spanish explorer Jacinto Caamaño

Jacinto Caamaño

Jacinto Caamaño Moraleja was the leader of the last great Spanish exploration of Alaska and the Coast of British Columbia. He was a Knight of the Military Order of Calatrava. Born in Madrid, he came from an aristocratic Galician family, whose homestead was near Santiago de Compostela...

 in 1792; it was named by George Vancouver

George Vancouver

Captain George Vancouver RN was an English officer of the British Royal Navy, best known for his 1791-95 expedition, which explored and charted North America's northwestern Pacific Coast regions, including the coasts of contemporary Alaska, British Columbia, Washington and Oregon...

 for Juan Vicente de Güemes, 2nd Count of Revillagigedo, then viceroy of New Spain

New Spain

New Spain, formally called the Viceroyalty of New Spain , was a viceroyalty of the Spanish colonial empire, comprising primarily territories in what was known then as 'América Septentrional' or North America. Its capital was Mexico City, formerly Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire...

 (Mexico), the following year.

The island's population was 13,950 as of the 2000 census

United States Census, 2000

The Twenty-second United States Census, known as Census 2000 and conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2000, to be 281,421,906, an increase of 13.2% over the 248,709,873 persons enumerated during the 1990 Census...

. The only cities on the island are Ketchikan

Ketchikan, Alaska

Ketchikan is a city in Ketchikan Gateway Borough, Alaska, United States, the southeasternmost sizable city in that state. With an estimated population of 7,368 in 2010 within the city limits, it is the fifth most populous city in the state....

 and Saxman

Saxman, Alaska

Saxman is a city on Revillagigedo Island in Ketchikan Gateway Borough in southeastern Alaska, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 431. The city of Ketchikan lies just to its northwest.-Geography:...

. The principal industries are fishing

Fishing

Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....

, canning

Canning

Canning is a method of preserving food in which the food contents are processed and sealed in an airtight container. Canning provides a typical shelf life ranging from one to five years, although under specific circumstances a freeze-dried canned product, such as canned, dried lentils, can last as...

, logging

Logging

Logging is the cutting, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks.In forestry, the term logging is sometimes used in a narrow sense concerning the logistics of moving wood from the stump to somewhere outside the forest, usually a sawmill or a lumber yard...

 and tourism

Tourism

Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...

. In addition to the stationary cities, there are several barge-based logging communities which move about. These serve the unconnected system of logging roads that dot the island.

The full name "Revillagigedo" is rarely used by the island's residents, who refer to it as "Revilla" (icon).