Updates on the world’s countries and borders
“Country” and “nation” are casual words for what experts call a “sovereign state”, meaning a place with its own borders, people, and 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), the organization at the center of today’s system of countries:
UN Members: 193
UN Observer States: 2
Total: 195*
UN Members: 193
UN Observer States: 2
States With Partial Recognition: 6
Total: 201
The six non-UN states with partial recognition are Taiwan, Kosovo, South Ossetia, Abkhazia, Northern Cyprus, and Western Sahara’s Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. All of these are claimed by other countries that don’t actually control them – or at least not completely. The number of UN members who recognize them varies, from just one for Northern Cyprus to about 100 for Kosovo.
Some sources also list the Cook Islands and Niue as partially-recognized. These two places sometimes act like independent countries, but they’ve never actually declared independence or tried to join the UN. They’re closely tied to New Zealand, and could each be described as a kind of “semi-independent” country. Though some other countries seem to call them independent on paper, there’s no big dispute over whether they’re independent or not, and there’s basically a consensus that they lie in a kind of gray area.
See all PolGeoNow maps and news articles about partially-recognized countries
But wait, there’s more! Those six partially-recognized countries aren’t the only so-called “breakaway states” that have declared independence without most of the world’s approval. There are two 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, along with the partially-recognized countries, are often called “de facto” sovereign states, a technical term that means 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: 2
Total: 203
The two places added to the list here, which are often considered de facto independent countries despite zero recognition from UN members, are Transnistria and Somaliland, which claim independence from Moldova and Somalia respectively.
Until the year before last, this list also included Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), an Armenia-allied self-governing territory claimed by Azerbaijan. But in 2023, the self-proclaimed Artsakh government surrendered to Azerbaijan after a blockade and new military offensive.
Though the leader of the Artsakh government later claimed his surrender was invalid, the area is now completely controlled by Azerbaijan, so either way it no longer qualifies as a “de facto sovereign state”.
Meanwhile, tiny “micronations” declared by individual people usually aren’t taken seriously enough to be put on the list. The closest contenders would probably be Sealand and the Kingdom of Papaala, but it’s debatable whether those tiny “nations” really count as having a territory, population, or government like a real country is supposed to.
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’s in charge or how the country is governed.
See all PolGeoNow maps and news articles about completely or partially-unrecognized countries
About half of the dependent territories in the Olympics are overseas possessions of the US (like Puerto Rico) or the UK (like Bermuda). Some almost-independent “countries” like the Cook Islands (associated with New Zealand) and Aruba (a “constituent country” of the Netherlands) are included too.
Currently, every existing UN member country is also an Olympic Nation, with the latest addition, South Sudan, joining in August 2015. The one UN Observer State that participates in the Olympics is Palestine. The other, Vatican City, participates as part of the Italian team for now. Countries can be suspended from participation in the Olympics from time to time, but they normally stay on the official list of Olympic Nations during their suspensions.
As for the two partially-recognized countries in the games, Kosovo became an Olympic Nation in 2014, and Taiwan has been a member for decades, but has to call itself “Chinese Taipei” after a deal struck with China in the 1980s.
Learn More: Parade of Nations: Which Countries Are (and Aren’t) in the Olympics?
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, technically known by the exciting name of ISO 3166-1. Lots of companies and other organizations adopt this standardized 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 self-proclaimed countries that aren’t recognized by the UN, but then it makes up for it by listing dependent territories separately from the countries they belong to. 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?”
That means there are “country codes” not just for actual countries, but also for almost-independent territories, overseas colonies, uninhabited island possessions, and even Antarctica! That’s important because organizations might need a designation for any piece of land in the world that a person can be located on, 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
The two ISO codes corresponding to partially-recognized states are for Taiwan and Western Sahara, though technically the codes are just designations for those areas, not for the partially-recognized governments that claim authority over them.
So there you have it! Next time someone tells you “There are 195 countries in the world,” remember that the real answer isn’t so simple!
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