Country Explorer

It may sound like a scary simple question, but answering how many countries there are in the world is an almost impossible task.

The problem is that there is no proper unambiguous definition of what a country agrees with.

In fact, it is as difficult as finding out what is the world’s largest city.

For example, would you say that the United Kingdom is one country? Or three? Or four? And are countries like Canada, Australia, Jamaica independent countries, or are they really controlled by Queen Elizabeth II as part of the Commonwealth?

What is what?

But let’s try anyway:

The UN officially has 193 Member States that must be considered as their own countries, with the last new membership being South Sudan in 2011. (In this definition, the United Kingdom is one country – but Canada, Australia and Jamaica are, of course, listed as independent).

It is not straightforward, however, since some of the UN member states are also debated. For example, Turkey does not recognize Cyprus, and neither South nor North Korea recognize each other.

On the list of member states, on the other hand, you will not find a country “everyone” recognizes, namely the Vatican City. However, this is because they do not want to be a full UN member state.

Kosovo will definitely claim to be a country of its own, but Serbia is strongly opposed. They are recognized by most Western countries as a separate country, but not by Russia and China, for example.

Then we end up in 195 countries, which is a relatively widely accepted definition, but as we shall see at the very bottom, the UN actually uses a list of 200 countries.

Taiwan

Of the more high-profile conflicts, we find the island of Taiwan, once recognized by the United Nations as a representative of “real” China, but which has lost that status. Unofficially has been considered a separate country for many years by most, but with its longstanding conflict with China, few are recognized as a country.

According to Countryaah, many countries have something similar to embassies in the country, and it is currently somewhat uncertain whether the country now really wants full freedom from China.

Non-recognized countries

There are also a large number of areas that want to be their own countries, but who simply do not receive the necessary recognition.

Palestine is a crown example, which has received much recognition, but is still such a contentious area that its legal status is difficult to establish.

Western Sahara remains a significant source of conflict, with Morocoo claiming to have control.

South Ossetia – the country that caused Russia to take action against Georgia in 2008 – is recognized as its own by a handful of countries, including Russia. The status of Abkhazia in the same area is about the same.

At the other end of the scale we find Somaliland who claims to have broken out Somalia, without anyone acknowledging them for that at all.

Territories, administrative regions and cooperation agreements

It becomes even more complicated when you look at miniature states and small islands that have more or less cooperation with other countries.

For example, Puerto Rico is subject to the United States as a territory, but does not have voting rights in the United States. Indeed, the United States has control over a large number of smaller islands and lands.

The Cook Islands are often referred to as a country, but what they call in a “free association” with New Zealand. Yet they are UN members.

The Netherlands, for its part, has formal control over a pile of islands in the Caribbean – and the United Kingdom still has full control over islands and territories over much of the world – including Gibraltar, the Cayman Islands and the Falkland Islands.

China, for its part, has half-separated two areas, Hong Kong and Macau, as separate administrative regions with very special status.

The largest island in the world, Greenland, on the other hand, is a Danish island with self-government.

And so you can continue almost infinitely with different forms of almost-land. Pirate Bay even tried to gain control of Sealand – which was simply an old rig off the coast of Northern Ireland.

The UN cooperates with 200 countries

Although the UN currently has 193 member countries, on its websites it lists a total of 200 countries referred to as member countries.

On this list we find countries such as Kosovo, the Vatican and Cook Islands which are not actually full UN countries.

The 50 countries with the highest gas consumption in the world

Source: Abbreviationfinder

Recent Posts

• France Cinematography in the 1940’s January 24, 2022 - The period of freedom and creative fruitfulness did not last long, and was interrupted by the Second World War; in June 1940, when the German troops arrived in Paris, film production was banned for over… Continue Reading
• France Cinematography in the 1930’s January 23, 2022 - According to Ezinereligion, the Thirties opened, as in the rest of the world, in the name of the economic crisis marked by the collapse of the Wall Street Stock Exchange (1929), which continued in France… Continue Reading
• France Chemical and Building Industries January 22, 2022 - Chemical industries. - If iron pyrites (Saint-Bel, Rhône) and phosphates from North Africa and Picardy are added to the salt and potash, it will be seen that France possesses in its subsoil and in the… Continue Reading
• France Arts and Architecture From the 5th to the 13th Century January 21, 2022 - At the turn of the 5th century. (for the previous artistic manifestations ➔ Gaul) there is a continuity of the construction methods of the Late Empire and typologies common to the Mediterranean Paleochristian world (Fréjus,… Continue Reading
• France Arts and Architecture From the 19th Century to the First Half of the 20th Century January 20, 2022 - The 19th century According to Estatelearning, the cult of the ancient, carried out in an increasingly archaeological way during the Empire, raising triumphal arches and columns, and the perpetuation of the classicist ideal (A.-C. Quatremère… Continue Reading
• France Arts and Architecture From the 14th to the 18th Century January 19, 2022 - From the 14th to the 16th century From the 14th century. realism begins to manifest itself with the first portraits (John the Good, Louvre; statues and portraits of Charles V and his wife, portraits of… Continue Reading
• France Architecture During 1949 and 1959 January 18, 2022 - In the decade 1949-59 French architecture still seems to be dominated by the overwhelming personality of Le Corbusier. There was no lack of architects from younger generations, and among the best is Pierre Vago, who… Continue Reading
• France Architecture and Urban Planning January 17, 2022 - The territorial planning policy, which officially began in the 1960s, is based on new criteria and institutions at the level of inter-ministerial coordination and regional decentralization. According to Dentistrymyth, the DATAR (Délégation à l'Aménagement du… Continue Reading
• France Architecture January 16, 2022 - At the beginning of the millennium, architecture in France has developed widely thanks to an urban policy at a national and local level that has promoted redevelopment programs ranging from the regeneration of city centers… Continue Reading
• France Archaeology – Roman period January 15, 2022 - According to Computergees, the great Gallo-Roman cities have been the subject of excavations even when a modern city has superimposed on them, and often the sad destruction caused by the war has given rise to… Continue Reading