How Many Countries Are There in the World?

By Political Geography Now

One of the most basic questions for map-lovers is, “How many countries are there in the world?” But anyone who just gives you a number isn’t telling the whole truth. It actually depends a lot on how you define a “country”.

Here are six of the most common answers, each correct in its own way:

195 Sovereign States According to the UN

“Country” and “nation” are casual words for what political scientists call a “sovereign state”, meaning a place with its own borders and completely independent government. The question of which places count as sovereign states can be controversial, but for starters we normally count all the member and observer countries of the United Nations (UN):

• UN Members: 193
• UN Observer States: 2
• Total: 195

These countries mostly all accept each other as sovereign states, and they’re the ones you’ll see on most world maps and lists of the world’s countries. Almost every country you’ve ever heard of is probably a member of the UN, and the two UN Observer States are Vatican City (represented by the Holy See) and Palestine. If you want to know the names of all 195, Wikipedia has a complete list.

The last addition to the list was in 2012, when Palestine became a UN Observer State, and the last time the number of full UN members changed was when South Sudan joined in 2011.

Note: Palestine’s approval as a UN Observer State was controversial, so some lists may still only have 194 countries.

204-207 De Facto Sovereign States

But wait, there’s more! Those six partially recognized countries aren’t the only breakaway states with full self-governance. There are at least three more self-declared countries that aren’t recognized by any UN members at all, but still operate independently from the countries that claim them. These are often called “de facto” sovereign states, a fancy Latin way of saying they’re independent countries in actual fact, even if not on paper.

• UN Members: 193
• UN Observer States: 2
• States With Partial Recognition: 6
• Unrecognized de facto Sovereign States: 3 to 6 (see below)
• Total: 204 to 207

The three places most often considered de facto independent countries are Nagorno-Karabakh, Transnistria, and Somaliland. And since 2014 there have been three more contenders for the list, questionable because they’re located in active war zones and have only limited government structures: The so-called “Islamic State” is almost out of the running now that it’s lost most of its territory in Syria and Iraq, but the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Lugansk People’s Republic, which claim independence from Ukraine, don’t seem to be going anywhere.

Tiny “micronations” declared by individual people usually aren’t taken seriously enough to put on the list. The closest contender would be Sealand, but it’s debatable whether this tiny “nation” really counts as having a territory, population, or government, all key ingredients for a sovereign state.

There are also many rebel-held territories (and fully self-governing areas like Puntland state in Somalia) that aren’t controlled by any country, but are left off the list because they don’t claim to be independent. They agree in principle that they’re part of another country, even though they might disagree about who should be in charge, or how the country should be governed.

206 Olympic Nations

Lots of people learn about the world’s list of countries by watching the Olympic Games every two years. If you’re one of them, you might be confused at why the Olympic Parade of Nations claims over 200 members, even though our atlas only has 195.

This is because the Olympics didn’t always require applicants to be independent countries. Dependent territories with partial self-government have sometimes been approved by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and a couple of the partially-recognized states mentioned above have also managed it.

Like the Olympics, FIFA didn’t always require independence or international recognition for its members. Now it’s a bit stricter, but any team that’s already a member is allowed to stay. The two newest members, which joined in May 2016, both made it in under special circumstances: Kosovo, a partially-recognized country, was voted in after being recognized by more than half of the UN’s members; and Gibraltar, an overseas territory of the UK, recently got a court order allowing it in without being independent.

Based on European tradition, FIFA also allows England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland to compete as separate teams, even though they’re all part of the UK.

249 Country Codes in the ISO Standard List

Ever been filling out an internet form, and had to choose from a surprisingly long list of countries? You were probably looking at the international standard “country code” list, formally known as ISO 3166-1. Lots of companies and other organizations adopt this standard list instead of spending their own time compiling one. The standard also includes convenient two-letter codes for each country, like us for the United States, de for Germany, and jp for Japan, which you might recognize from website addresses specific to those countries.

This ISO standard is based on an official list kept by the UN…but then why on Earth are there 249 country codes? That’s way more than the total number of UN member and observer countries! Well, the standard list does leave out some breakaway states not recognized by the UN, but makes up for it by listing dependent territories separately from their parent countries. In other words, the ISO list is more an answer to the question, “How many countries and territories in the world?” than “How many countries in the world?”

This means there are “country codes” not just for actual countries, but also for nearly-independent states, overseas colonies, uninhabited islands, and even Antarctica! This is important, because organizations might need an option for every place that any person can be located, and dependent territories often aren’t technically part of the countries they belong to.

• UN Members: 193
• UN Observer States: 2
• States With Partial Recognition: 2
• Inhabited Dependent Territories: 45
• Uninhabited Territories: 6
• Antarctica: 1
• Total: 249

So there you have it! Next time someone tells you “There are 194 countries in the world,” remember that the real answer isn’t so simple!