Exactly how many countries are there in the world

Matt Rosenberg. Geography Expert. Updated February 27, Featured Video. View Article Sources. Cite this Article Format. Rosenberg, Matt. The Number of Countries in the World. Non-Member Countries of the United Nations. Capitals of Every Independent Country. What's the Difference Between an Embassy and a Consulate?

What Is a City State? Definition and Modern Examples. History and Principles of the United Nations. The World's 10 Smallest Countries. Below is the full table of countries ranked by the most populous and showing current population, share of world population, and land area: See also: List with both countries and dependencies together Alphabetical list of countries includes dependencies.

Coronavirus Population. W How many Countries are there in the World? Countries in the World: Not in the list Not included in this total count of countries are: Taiwan - the United Nations considers it represented by the People's Republic of China The Cook Islands and Niue , both states in free association with New Zealand which are members of several UN specialized agencies and have been recognized "full treaty-making capacity", but are neither member states nor non-member observer states.

Dependencies or dependent territories, dependent areas, dependencies and Areas of Special Sovereignty autonomous territories Other countries recognized by the United Nations as not being self-governing Where are they located? Of the countries in the world: 54 countries are in Africa 48 in Asia 44 in Europe 33 in Latin America and the Caribbean 14 in Oceania 2 in Northern America Flags Flags of all countries in the world List of countries Below is the full table of countries ranked by the most populous and showing current population, share of world population, and land area: See also: List with both countries and dependencies together Alphabetical list of countries includes dependencies.

United States. DR Congo. United Kingdom. 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. Their leaders agree in principle that they're part of another country, even if they disagree about who should be in charge or how the country should be governed.

See all PolGeoNow maps and news articles about completely or partially-unrecognized countries. Some semi-independent "countries" like the Cook Islands associated with New Zealand and Aruba a "constituent country" of the Netherlands are included too. As for the two partially-recognized countries in the games, Kosovo became an Olympic Nation in , and Taiwan has been a member for some time, but has to call itself "Chinese Taipei" after a deal struck with China in the s.

This article, originally from , has been revised and updated to February You can view some older versions of the article in our archives. A world political map published by the US government. One of the most basic questions for map-lovers is, "How many countries are there in the world? 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: 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: UN Observer States: 2 Total: 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.

If you want to know the names of all , Wikipedia has a complete list. Places like Palestine, Kosovo and Taiwan are partially recognized which increase the count. The State of Palestine is often included but it is only recognized by UN members. Kosovo is also often included but is only recognized by 97 UN members. Ellen Kershner August 26 in World Geography.

Pantanal, Brazil. What Is A Plateau? Regions Of Europe. Transcontinental Countries Of The World. Western Asia.