How Many Countries are There in the World?

The number of countries in the world seems like an easy question to answer, but, suprisingly, it’s difficult to precisely count the number of countries involved a complex and interwoven game of history, politics, and culture.

If you’ve traveled heavily, you have probably tried to convey the extent of your travels by condensing it down to a single number. It might be the number of countries you’ve visited or the number of states or provinces in your country you’ve seen.

Determining how many countries there are in the world is not as straightforward as it may appear because while many countries are obvious—you can probably name 20+ clearly defined countries off the top of your head—the actual definition of a country can be slippery and broader than you might think.

How many countries are there in the world?
Some sources say there are 193 countries, if you count just the countries in the UN. Others pinpoint 195—adding in two “countries” not included in the UN (Palestine and Vatican City). The Olympic Committee recognizes 206 countries, and other sources put the number upwards of 300.

Here’s exactly what you need to know to understand the number of countries in the world:

Countries in The United Nations

A good place to start any list of countries is with the UN. The United Nations is a body of 193 sovereign independent nation states. This covers everything you probably first think of as a country: Canada, Bolivia, Germany, Botswana, Malaysia, etc.

Most of the big spots on the map can be filled in with countries that are members of the UN. The only country that is generally recognized as an independent nation but is not in the UN would be Vatican City, which has observer status at the UN. So according to the UN, this puts the list of countries at: 193.

How Many Countries are There
This was all I saw of Kiribati. I was denied entry into the country because the ink on my visa stamp bled. :(

Here is a complete list of all of the countries in the United Nations as of 2019:

Afghanistan
Albania
Algeria
Andorra
Angola
Antigua & Barbuda
Argentina
Armenia
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Bahamas
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Barbados
Belarus
Belgium
Belize
Benin
Bhutan
Bolivia
Bosnia & Herzegovina
Botswana
Brazil
Brunei Darussalam
Bulgaria
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cambodia
Cameroon
Canada
Cape Verde
Central African Republic
Chad
Chile
China
Colombia
Comoros
Congo
Congo (DRC)
Costa Rica
Côte d’Ivoire
Croatia
Cuba
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Djibouti
Dominica
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
Egypt
El Salvador
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Estonia
Ethiopia
Fiji
Finland
France
Gabon
Gambia
Georgia
Germany
Ghana

Greece
Grenada
Guatemala
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Guyana
Haiti
Honduras
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Jamaica
Japan
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kiribati
Korea, North
Korea, South
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
Laos
Latvia
Lebanon
Lesotho
Liberia
Libya
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macedonia
Madagascar
Malawi
Malaysia
Maldives
Mali
Malta
Marshall Islands
Mauritania
Mauritius
Mexico
Micronesia
Moldova
Monaco
Mongolia
Montenegro
Morocco
Mozambique
Myanmar
Namibia
Nauru
Nepal
Netherlands
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Niger
Nigeria
Norway
Oman

Pakistan
Palau
Panama
Papua New Guinea
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Qatar
Romania
Russia
Rwanda
Saint Kitts & Nevis
Saint Lucia
Saint Vincent & the Grenadines
Samoa
San Marino
Sao Tome & Principe
Saudi Arabia
Senegal
Serbia
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Singapore
Slovakia
Slovenia
Solomon Islands
Somalia
South Africa
South Sudan
Spain
Sri Lanka
Sudan
Suriname
Swaziland
Sweden
Switzerland
Syria
Tajikistan
Tanzania
Thailand
Timor-Leste
Togo
Tonga
Trinidad & Tobago
Tunisia
Turkey
Turkmenistan
Tuvalu
Uganda
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom
United States of America
Uruguay
Uzbekistan
Vanuatu
Venezuela
Viet Nam
Yemen
Zambia
Zimbabwe

The UN doesn’t cover everywhere, however. If you watched the opening ceremony at the Olympics, you will have noticed that over 200 countries were represented.

Basic math tells us that 200 is greater than 193, and the Vatican doesn’t have an Olympic team (but it would be kind of cool if it did). This leads us to …

Countries Defined by the International Olympic Committee

There are 206 members of the IOC as of 2019. The difference between the UN and the IOC is that the IOC includes several non-independent countries, most of which are usually considered a territory of a larger country—most of these fall under territories of the United Statesterritories of the UK, or French territories. Notable ones include such places as Hong Kong, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Cook Island, and the British Virgin Islands. The IOC also includes Taiwan (known in the IOC as Chinese Taipei) which is not a member of the United Nations.

If you merge the list of the UN and the IOC, you still have some issues. Hong Kong is part of the IOC, but Macau isn’t. American territories have independent status in the IOC, but French territories such as French Polynesia do not. Antarctica isn’t represented on either list, but it is an entire continent you can visit.

My thoughts: We need a bigger list.

These are the 13 places that are members of the International Olympic Committee, but are not in the United Nations:

Palestine
Cook Islands
American Samoa
Guam
Puerto Rico

U.S. Virgin Islands
Bermuda
British Virgin Islands
Cayman Islands

Aruba
Hong Kong
Kosovo
Taiwan

Even this list isn’t complete, however. Some countries are de facto independent countries but aren’t recognized by anyone else. They control their own territory, have their own currency, run elections and everything else a country does, except they don’t have relations with anyone else.

There are also additional territories that are not in international organizations like the IOC. Territories like Gibraltar, French Polynesia, Greenland, Curacao, and even Antarctica are distinct geographical places, but are not listed as “countries” on any of the above lists.

That brings us to … 

Countries of the Travelers’ Century Club

The Travelers’ Century Club has taken it upon themselves to create a definitive list of “countries” for the purpose of travel. They not only include all of the above places, but also split off Alaska and Hawaii, Siberia from the rest of Russia, all the Emirates in the United Arab Emirates, the major island groups of Indonesia, the nations of the UK (England, Scotland, and Wales), Tasmania from the rest of Australia, etc.

This list has 327 “countries,” and I put countries in quotes because most of them do not meet most people’s definition of a country.

However, this is the list I use on my website. I think it is a reasonable list that covers most of the “places” on Earth—it pays homage to distinct cultural groups (always important for international travelers), landmasses, and more. Although I do have some disagreements with their list, ultimately any list is sort of arbitrary and my disagreements are small enough that I still feel comfortable using it.

Every so often I get an email from someone telling me that Hawaii isn’t a country (duh) or reminding me that Tasmania is part of Australia.

I know that, but that isn’t really capturing the spirit of the list.

Where do you go once you’ve been to every place on the TCC list? That was answered by Charles Veley and …

Countries in the world
Musandam, Oman is on the MTP list, but not the TCC list.

Countries of MTP.travel

Charles Veley was at one time the self-proclaimed “Most traveled person on Earth.” Actually, I have no reason to quibble with that title. He put in a helluva lot of effort into completing the TCC list, and he then set out for more. His website, mtp.travel goes even further than the TCC and lists every US state, Canadian province, and region of Russia, Australia, China, and Brazil. It also goes the added step of merging the ham radio DXCC list, which is where the list begins to lose me. That list has 873 places, of which I’ve been to 383 (as of 2019).

Many of the places they list I have no desire to ever visit—it focuses too much on uninhabited islands, exclaves, and enclaves. For example, it lists Johnston Atoll, which is a territory of the United States in the Pacific. There is nothing special about this place. No one ever lived there, it has no history, culture, or anything interesting about it from a natural standpoint. It’s just a place that is only remarkable because of its odd political status. If it were given to Hawaii, nothing about the atoll itself would change, but it would probably be removed from the list.

A bunch of these rocks in the middle of nowhere are listed and I really see no reason why every speck of land in the world doesn’t deserve listing if these places do. It might be interesting for ham radio operators to talk to someone from there, but as a travel destination, it isn’t worth anything.

To me, a place is a place because it has some significance. It could be political (see the UN list), it could be cultural, historic, or natural. That’s why in my sidebar I also take note of every one of these types of places that I visit. Such as the:

UNESCO World Heritage Sites

There are 1,092 World Heritage Sites in the world, and more are listed every year. Going to see the pyramids is different than just having set foot in Egypt. Seeing the Grand Canyon is different than having an overnight stay in Las Vegas.

Not all countries are equal in this respect. Some countries with long histories have more sites than others. The US and Canada don’t have much in the way of cultural sites compared to Italy or China, but each one does have a large number of natural sites recognized for biodiversity. Ultimately, I like using these UNESCO sites better than a country list because it represents specific things and places with a reason for each one.

Also, unlike countries, you usually don’t just pass through a World Heritage site like you might pass through a country on a train or in an airport. If you visit one you, probably went there to see it. The problem is, most people have no clue how many they’ve been to and have no idea how many there are in the world. Many of these sites are also much more difficult to visit. Going to the Solomon Islands is one type of difficult. Going to the east end of Rennell Island World Heritage site is a totally different type of hard.

So, once again I ask you the question: How many countries are there in the world?

You tell me!

31 thoughts on “How Many Countries are There in the World?”

  1. I have a question just of curiosity. My question is to all those (including this site owner) who travel a lot of countries. What is your source of income?

  2. Just hit 90 UN countries….never counted the places or territories based off the other lists. Goal is 100 UN countries by 40 which is a year and a half away. I appreciate the blog and all the info and commentary.

  3. I saw the list of the 321 “countries” and saw that Canada is only one entity… except the PEI.

    As I come from Québec, I can tell you that it makes no sense (it is borderline insulting) that PEI is distinct when Québec is not.

    Québec is much more than a distinct society from Canada. It is just as different from Canada as France is different from England and maybe more.

    It is a nation and, in 2013, we should not struggle anymore to be recognized as it.

    On the other hand, PEI is just a tiny island not distinct from the rest of ROC (the 9 provinces and 3 territories of Canada that have at least English as an official language).

    The only thing they have “special” is that they grow potatoes… no big deal.

    Québec, though is unique in all the French speaking world. A language, a history, a population, a culture, music, movies, political culture, relation the environment, totally different from the ROC.

    Add Québec!

    • I agree that it makes no sense, but I didn’t make the list.

      Personally, I would have Newfoundland and Quebec be listed separately.

  4. Please be nice, everyone. Haven’t you ever heard of an “ice breaker” before? Gary is trying to get a conversation going here. There is no need to get one’s nose out of joint!
    I haven’t been to nearly as many countries as many people here have (9), and I’m a lot older than most. But I find it inspiring to hear where others have been. It shakes me out of my complacency and makes me want to get going to more places and soon!

  5. It’s funny. When we get asked this question, we don’t include countries we’ve just passed through either on the train or through an airport. We also only count the places we’ve been together. Now, granted we’ve been together ahemteen years, so there aren’t too many we did separately. :) I think it’s like any other number or metric. It’s a snapshot of what you’ve done/who you are. I’m x years old, married/single, kids/no kids, degree? It’s just a way to sum up what would be a vast answer with some reasonable label. Instead of arguing over what constitutes a country, we could equally argue over what constitutes “married”, or any other label. What if you’re married but unhappy? Married but sleeping with everyone you meet? Labels are just that. :) (And just for the record, happily married, thank you, and 54-ish country-like places).

  6. Why even care about it? It’s too difficult to define a country and besides, each place is different. If someone has been to Florida, does it mean that he knows Hawaii? If someone has been to Moscow, does it mean that he knows a lot about Russia? Most countries are too big to count them as one place.

  7. Haha, who decides when you have “known” a country deeply enough? Is there a test? Months, miles and doing it overland is just checking off a list in disguise. You might see more of Spain than most Spaniards, but that isn’t important to everyone. There is an undertone of “My way is better” in some of these comments.

  8. Haha, funny to see those who are against “shallow” counting have their own egotistical ideals. People just like to quantify, it’s not a measure of your worth get over it.

  9. Aaah, I have done some of these counts. According to TCC I am just over 80 depending on my harsher view of a “visit”. MTP puts me over 100 but their list is absurd. And I am at 46 of Hillmans hundred and 260 of the Hillman 1000 – an impressive list with only a few quibbles. The heritage list is interesting and not a count I’ve done.

  10. Many travel blogs I visit, I have a hard time figuring out their route. I list the countries in order so people understand my route, although a person can perceive and judge the context as they wish.

    My comment was not referring to you, I have not visited with you in person, although most people that I have visited in person that travel fast cannot explain the deeper levels of the culture or the dynamics of the country.

    Everyone has different style of travel, but the counting of numbers of countries a person has been to doesn't mean a thing—it's shallow.

  11. That number counting is based on ego driven self-glorification of oneself.

    Quality outweighs Quantity within most subjects, and indeed, the traveling subject.

    Most people that are traveling fast based on numbers cannot explain the deeper levels of culture or even the dynamics of the country, at least from my experience talking with people that travel fast and numerous countries within a short time.

    This subject is stupid as the question, What is your favorite country or place?

    • Don't dare to tell me what experiences I've had, or try to be the benchmark for everyone in the world for how people should travel. If you want to spend 5 months in Egypt compared to my 1, I'm happy for you, but the fact that I spent more time than 99% of most people who visit hardly makes me “fast”.

      Also, you god damn hypocrite, I'd like to point out that you list the countries you've been to at the top of your “ego driven” website.

  12. 34 if I don't include just passing through an airport (I didn't think that was fair to include!). Doing number 35 in a week!

  13. I'll just list out the places I've been (countries and states):

    Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Florida, Colorado, Illinois, Washington DC, England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Italy, Greece, and Quebec.

  14. Why does it even matter “how many” countries, or places, or whatever a person visits? I can see the allure of counting, but it makes it all sound so frivolous. Isn't it the quality of the travel? Isn't it expanding one's view of the world, seeing how others live and learning about other cultures? Quantifying travel like this kind of defeats the purpose.

    • Because when you are talking to a group of people about traveling and you give an answer like that, it is a conversation killer and really not very fun.

      Numbering the places you've been doesn't destroy the good experiences you've had.

  15. I've only seen 5 of the 100 top destinations. At least I've seen those 5! However, I've been to 16 different countries in total. I really like this website. It has a lot of content, and a lot of valuable information. Thanks for putting so much effort into your posts! They are much appreciated!

  16. I use the Travelers Century Club because my Grandparents were members with a total of 175 countries, and my parents are 10 countries shy of joining. I started traveling at 3 months of age with my parents and to date I have 50 countries on my list. I havent added a country in a while. But now I'm back in school to be an airline pilot at the Delta Connection Academy. That will feed my addiction again. My blog follows me through flight school to the goal of more access to travel.

  17. Another criteria to consider is not only what constitutes a country, but what constitutes a visit. Some people say you have to have at least left the airport, others take it as far as to say that if you've not left your all-inclusive tourist resort you haven't really been to the country. My personal opinion is that if your passport says you've been, then you have.

  18. Gary, just voted for ya, you are only 2 votes out of first place now. Great post, didn't know some of those lists were out there.

  19. Hmm, not counting the countries I've lived in (Canada and S. Korea), I've been to 11 so far, and 2 more to be added in an upcoming trip (Greece & Turkey). I just went through the top 100 list, and saw 18 plus 6 to be added from the said upcoming trip. I only started traveling about 3.5 years ago, so that's not bad..? Been to mostly Europe, and rather easy to cover a lot of ground by train. :-) I daydream about a trip like yours, but hoping to do so one day…. Don't know how yet.

  20. China, Laos, Thailand, Panama, Jordan, Canada, U.S. – Seven, I guess, unless Hong Kong counts (a separate customs district although it's officially a part of China). Do I get extra points for going to China five times and traveling to really remote provinces?

  21. Four by any definition. The Netherlands, where I've lived all me life, Luxembourg, where we used to go on vacation every year, Belgium, where we occasionally went during those vacations, and France where I've been with school.

    I've passed through Germany and a few other countries and have been in Italy when I was six months old but I don't count those.

  22. I've been to the Bahamas (the water's so blue!!), Canada, England, and France. I live in the US. My favorite so far is England. I'd love to spend more time there. The British Museum in London was amazing, and all of the history is just awesome! I took the ferry from the White Cliffs of Dover over to France and that was really neat, but the people in Paris really are kind of snobby to Americans. I took French in school and know enough to fumble my way along – I was really trying! – and they were so rude about it! I'm glad I went there and saw all of the big things in Paris, but I'm not sure I'll go back.

    I really want to go to New Zealand and Japan and Ireland.

  23. The ever important 'list of places' you can claim to have been to is more than merely an airport stopover or sandwich at a train station.

    For me, it has to be a scheduled meal or at least a night out. I've recently scrubbed off many a destination from my travel map on the basis that I thought it was cheating!

    Keep up the travelling, great blog.

    Andy

    http://andygeog.blogspot.com

  24. I live in Canada so been to nine of the ten provinces, then traveled to the United States, Mexico, Cuba, Dominican Republic, England, Germany, France, Italy, Hungary, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand. There are highlights from each of them. And each holiday had its own purpose and adventure. I just hope that I can visit many more of them.

  25. Great post with some fantastic points. I think by my last count I was at 25 or 26. That includes places like San Marino, The Vatican etc. which inevitably leads to conversations about what constitutes a country – love the criteria outlined in your post and definitely going to check out MTP!

  26. According to MostTraveledPeople.com, I've been to 40 locations, though most of those are US states, so that's kind of lame. :) I have set foot in 8 countries besides the US; besides the obvious Mexico and Canada, I have been to El Salvador and Guatemala, Ireland and the UK (just Northern Ireland), India, and (by virtue of a layover en route to India) the Netherlands.

    On the wish list: as much of western Europe as I can, especially Norway, France, and Spain, the latter because I have a friend in Barcelona; Australia to visit friends in Brisbane; Russia to visit a friend in St. Petersburg; Japan… but in this economy, I don't think I'll be seeing any of these places any time soon.

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