To Be or Not to Be a Country... Just How Many Are There?

On the surface it should be a simple question: How many countries are there in the world? The number changes over time, to be sure, wars are fought, countries unify or split, territories declare independence, but theoretically, at any one time there should be a definitive answer, for the present moment, and yet...

It dependents on who you ask & what the definition of country is...

According to the United Nations, as of 2024 there are 193 countries. (But keep in mind, according to the UN, Terrorist Nations are fit to lead human rights councils, so personally I don't find them a very authoritative source...)

To be considered an official country🔍 by the UN two thirds of United Nations member states🔍 must diplomatically recognize a territory🔍 as sovereign & independent. (Including all five permanent members of the Security Council and at least four of the ten rotating members.)

Somewhat understandably, decisions about territories with disputed status' are highly influenced by potential political fall outs.

Vatican City/ (Holy See), Palestine and Kosovo are also not officially recognized even though they are recognized by over 100 individual member states.

Western Sahara (trying to declare independence from Morocco), South🔍 Ossetia, Abkhazia & Northern Cyprus all also aspire to official country-hood. (Vatican City & Palestine are unique, in that they hold permeant non-member observer status despite not being officially recognized by the body.)

So what makes a country a country? A certain size government? Military? It's own currency? Control over it's own borders?

Do a people really need and outside body like the UN's approval to be a country? Kosovo seems to meet all the normal criteria and certainly behaves like an independent country even without official status. (How long, for example, would it have taken for the UN to give the US official country status against Great Britain's wishes, had it existed back then?)

But if no outside approval is necessary then what would prevent every individual island or even disgruntled city/ county/ region from declaring independence?

Surprisingly, many essentially independently governed places we tend to think of as countries are actually still under a parent country's rule, like -

Greenland The Faroe Islands Hong Kong & Puerto Rico,

(which could all probably get country status should their parent country release them.)

And there are dozen's more territories left over from the age of colonization.

Some toy with the idea of self governing from time to time but most don't push for independence because there are significant financial and political benefits to remaining a territory of a successful, larger nation state for both the territory and it's citizens

Non-Countries fall into a few categories.

First are Autonomous, Self Governing Quantum States,

(or Unincorporated Organized Territories) They include:

American Territories:

Puerto Rico, Guam, US Virgin Islands, Northern Marianas Islands,

& American Samoa (of Polynesia)

Kingdom🔍 of Denmark Territories:

Greenland & The Faroe Islands

Chinese Special Administrative Regions:

Taiwan, Hong Kong, & Macau

New Zealand Territories:

Cook Islands & Niue (all of Polynesia)

Then there are Dependent Territories & Provinces like:

New Zealand's Dependent Territory: ........Tokelau

United Kingdom Territories:

In the Caribbean - Anguilla & Montserrat (of the Leeward Islands | Lesser Antilles,) Turks + Caicos,

Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands, Bermuda, Falkland Islands,** British Indian Ocean🔍 Territory, Gibraltar, South Georgian & Sandwich Islands,

Saint Helena, Ascension Isle, Tristin da Cunha & Pitcairn Islands***

& Crown Dependancies:

Channel Islands: Bailiwicks of Jersey & Guernsey and the Isle of Mann

France's Overseas Collectives, Departments & Regions:

In the Caribbean - Guadeloupe, Saint Martin (FR) & Martinique (both of Lesser Antilles),

French Guiana, New Caledonia, Reunion, Mayotte,

French Polynesia, Wallis & Fotuna, Saint Pierre & Miquelon

Kingdom of Netherlands Territories:

In the Caribbean - Aruba, Curacoa (of Lesser Antilles), Sint Maarten (N), Bonair, Saba & Sint Eustatius

There are also (generally) unrecognized Breakaway States;

. . . regions that, for ethnic, cultural, historical or geographical reasons, consider themselves separate entities from their parent country like:

Transnistria, officially Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic🔍

- a north eastern strip of Moldova, once an Autonomous Soviet Republic State, (locally known just as  Pridnestrovie). It's status was left in limbo by a ceasefire agreement after the fall of the USSR that failed to formalized either it's independence or it's reintegration with Moldova. Internationally it's considered part of Moldova, but governmentally Moldova allows it to function as a de facto separate country.

[It's official independence is recognized only by South Ossetia & Abkhazia, who are also in dispute]

Lastly there are odd balls like Svalbard, so far removed geographically from the rest of Norway it feels like a separate country and Antartica which isn't part of any one country at all.

Knowing a 'country's' status can be particularly important when traveling, for one thing, when there is a local controversy, it's best to avoid sharing your opinion on the subject while visiting, (don't advocate for Taiwan's independence in China!) But even more important, you need to be aware of irregularities to avoid being banned or jailed by border authorities... for instance Serbia does not recognize Kosovo as an independent country, so if your visiting Serbia you DO NOT 🚫 cross in from the Kosovo border - when you try to leave Serbia they will not recognize the Kosovo entry stamp and it will appear to them as if you entered the country illegally!

So how many Countries Are there?

193 (UN countries)? 195 (UN countries + Permanent Non-Member States)?

201 (States claiming country-hood)?

204 - 217 (States that might as well be / are thought of as countries)?

245+ (Total countries & territories)?

For the purposes of this site & my travel count, my answer is:

195 Countries - 193 UN + Kosovo & Taiwan

 (Sorry, Vatican City is a city, no matter its sovereignty)

but, more broadly

217 Distinct States, to be treated as separate destinations, on my travel ✔️ list :)

How many countries have you traveled to? Have you hit any of the controversial ones? Let us know in the comments which was your over all favorite?

* Interesting Side Note: only one country has ever fully left the United Nations, either by choice or banishment, and that was Indonesia (by choice.) In 1965, Indonesia withdraw from the U.N. in protest when it's rival Malaysia was granted a seat at the Security Council, but it rejoined less than a year later in 1966.

** Disputed by Argentina.

*** Tristan is an Edinburgh settlement of 238 people, and Pitcairn just 40, most the descendants of the HMS Bounty mutineers. Both claim to be the worlds most remote inhabited island.