Mainland is usually the continental part of a region, as opposed to the islands nearby. Sometimes the residents are called "the Mainlanders". As a result of the usually larger area of mainland, there are significantly more mainlanders than islanders, and mainlander culture and politics sometimes threaten to dominate those of the islands.
Occasionally two approximately equal sized islands may interchangely refer to each other as the Mainland, as in the North Island and South Island of New Zealand.
The term can also be used on multiple levels; for example to someone in Tasmania, continental Australia is the Mainland; but to residents of King Island, Flinders Island, and the other surrounding islands, Tasmania itself is the Mainland.
