As of March , the State Department recognized independent countries around the world. However, one nation is missing from the State Department's list that should be on it.
The island of Taiwan , formally known as the Republic of China, meets the requirements for an independent country or state status. However, all but a handful of nations refuse to recognize Taiwan as an independent nation. The communist People's Republic of China maintains that it has authority over Taiwan, and relations between the island and mainland have been strained.
Taiwan was actually a member of the United Nations and even the Security Council until when mainland China replaced Taiwan in the organization. Taiwan, which has the world's 29th-largest economy, continues to press for full recognition by others.
But China, with its growing economic, military, and political clout, has largely been able to shape the dialogue on this issue. As a result, Taiwan cannot fly its flag at international events such as the Olympics and must be referred to as Chinese Taipei in some diplomatic situations. Dozens of territories and colonies are sometimes erroneously called countries but don't count because they're governed by other countries.
The components of the United Kingdom Northern Ireland, Scotland , Wales, and England are not fully independent countries, either, though they do enjoy a degree of autonomy. When dependent territories are included, the United Nations recognizes a total of countries and territories. If you use the U. State Department's list of recognized nations and also include Taiwan, there are countries in the world. The same number is reached if you count the UN voting members, its two permanent observers, and Taiwan.
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. The last addition to the list was in , when Palestine became a UN Observer State , and the last time the number of full UN members changed was when South Sudan joined in Note: Palestine's approval as a UN Observer State was controversial, so some sources may leave it out and list only countries.
Czech Republic Czechia. United Arab Emirates. Papua New Guinea. Sierra Leone. El Salvador. State of Palestine. Costa Rica. Central African Republic. New Zealand.
Bosnia and Herzegovina. They also have their own language and culture. So technically they are not countries, even though you need a separate visa and a flight to get there. If I live a long time I might make it to What about Crown Dependencies? They just rely on the Crown for ratification of highest level of legislation and military defence. I had the chance to visit more than countries so far. I would truly count several places I have been to as separate countries and not as part of a bigger one.
We have thousands of miles between these places, totally different cultures, traditions, way of life, therefore to name them as their once colonizers wouldnt be fair. Just my opinion. I truly enjoyed your website. Wonderful and congratulations! I lost your count somewhere, you have and then you say you add the list of 21 and take away one, resulting to , but your list only has got 20? Your comments are wrong. Scotland and Wales do have separate laws.
Do have different languages. Its not pedantic. Its fact. They are separate countries. Also, to say they have different languages is pedantic. Let me answer that for you.
I recently decided that I want to visit every country as well. I had to write a list of all the countries and came up with the number as well. The Isle of Man is much more of an independent country than Scotland or Wales. I needed my passport to cross the border, my credit card stopped working, etc.
Finally seeing some big traffic on my site! More than countries are in all over the world, It is really interesting things. I too ran into so many different numbers when searching for the exact number of countries in the world. Same thing with Greenland, which has its own capital, Nuuk.
Great research here, in any case, I learned a lot! Regards from no. Though many are satisfied with simplistic expanations.
You could have planned for the th and final new destination to be somewhere cheaper than Norway! Very impressive and very instructive. Thanks for the geographical lesson. Keep loving your blogs, as always.
Your email address will not be published. Notify me of followup comments via e-mail. As you know, blogging changed my life. I left Ireland broke, with no plan, with just a one-way ticket to Thailand and no money.
And I did it all from my laptop as I travel the world and live my dream. No spam ever too, I promise! Sharing's caring! Share this awesome article with your friends, you know u wanna How many countries in the world? Table of Contents. My google map pins after visiting every country in the world!
How many countries in the world, and what is a country? How many countries in the word? So, is Taiwan A Country? How many countries are there in the world? Here I am in Greenland, which is not technically a country. It belongs to Denmark. How Many Countries in the world? Visiting Mogadishu, Somalia. The UK is the country.
With a novice monk in Tibet. Remember, never travel without travel insurance! And never overpay for travel insurance! You can read my review here , and you can sign-up here Also, if you want to start a blog Got a question? Wanna comment? Catalonia refers to itself as a nation within Spain , that should not count. Which, then, of the favours of your Lord will ye twain, deny? Ohh, very long try find this.
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