How Many Islands Does San Blas Actually Have?

San Blas (Guna Yala) has more than 365 islands and cays, with some counts running as high as 378 — the exact number depends on how small, uninhabited sandbars are counted. Only around 40 to 50 of them are actually inhabited by Guna communities.

Why the number changes depending on where you look

You’ll see “365 islands” repeated constantly — partly because it’s a tidy, memorable number, and partly because it’s genuinely close to accurate. Other sources cite 378, and some go higher. The difference usually comes down to a judgment call: does a tiny sandbar with three palm trees and no permanent land above the high-tide line count as an “island,” or is it a cay, a reef, or just a sandbar that happens to poke above the water?

There’s no single official government census that resolves this cleanly, which is why you’ll keep seeing slightly different numbers across guidebooks, blogs, and tour sites — including this one, where we say “more than 365” rather than picking one exact figure we can’t independently verify.

The number that actually matters more: 40-50

Whether the true count is 365 or 378, the number that matters far more for planning a trip is this: only about 40 to 50 of these islands are inhabited by Guna communities. The rest — the majority of the archipelago — are small, uninhabited cays used for not much more than a beautiful stop on a boat route.

That’s also why the “365 islands” framing can be a little misleading for travelers. You’re not choosing between 365 different destinations. You’re really choosing between a much smaller set of accessible, well-known cays near the Carti embarkation point — see our full islands guide for the ones tours actually visit — and a handful of inhabited islands, like El Porvenir, where real Guna community life continues.

The bottom line

Treat “365+” as a genuinely accurate range, not a precise government-verified figure — and treat “40-50 inhabited” as the number that should actually shape your itinerary.