What number of nations are there on the planet? In response to the United Nations member listing, there could also be as few as 193 nations or as many as 197, however the actual reply is a little more sophisticated than that.
What about locations like Kosovo and Taiwan? Are they nations? Though they’re unrecognized by the UN and could also be politically controversial, they meet all the standards to be thought-about sovereign states.
On this article, I’ll clarify a few of these points and why it’s laborious to return to a precise tally of the world’s nations. Then I’ll give my opinion on why I believe the actual whole is no less than 199 nations.
This subject pursuits me as a result of I’m on a journey myself to sometime go to each nation on the planet, as you’ll be able to see on my journey weblog. However earlier than I can do this, I first have to determine what number of nations there are! Let’s get began!
What Is A Nation? (Definition)
The Oxford dictionary defines a rustic as “a nation with its personal authorities, occupying a selected territory.” The Britannica dictionary provides a related definition.
In the meantime, the Cambridge dictionary defines a rustic as “an space of land that has its personal authorities, military, and many others.”
We’ll come again to those definitions later, as a result of they could be useful for understanding find out how to classify disputed nations.
How Many International locations In The World? (UN Definition)
So what number of nations are there on the planet? The perfect place to start out is the United Nations member listing. It’s not excellent, but it surely’s fairly complete and consists of many of the nations of the world.
Once we take a look at the United Nations listing, here’s what we see:
- 193 UN member states
- 2 UN Basic Meeting non-member observer states (Palestine, Holy See)
- 2 eligible non-member states (Cook dinner Islands, Niue)
When you add all of those up, you get a complete of 193, 195, or 197 nations. Underneath the strictest definition (UN membership) there can be 193 nations, or below the loosest definition (all eligible states) there can be 197.
I don’t suppose it’s honest to exclude a rustic from the overall simply because it’s not a UN member, so long as it’s eligible for membership and meets all the factors for being thought-about a rustic, so it’s solely logical to say that there are a complete of 197 nations.
So there you may have it — 197 nations! We’re executed, proper? Fallacious. There’s nonetheless the difficulty of Kosovo and Taiwan, that are unrecognized by the UN. So how will we classify them?
Is Taiwan A Nation? Sure
In 1949, Communist forces took management of mainland China in a civil battle, forcing out the leaders of the Republic of China and its followers, who fled to the island of Formosa (Taiwan).
Since then, Taiwan has been an independently ruled nation with its personal flag, forex, army, structure, extensively accepted passport, and an independently elected president.
Taiwan was one of many unique founding members of the United Nations, and it was nonetheless acknowledged as the only legit consultant of China by a majority of UN members till the Nineteen Seventies, when mainland China’s affect started to develop quickly and Taiwan was voted out of the UN of their favor.
Immediately, China tries to assert possession over Taiwan, and it will get sensitive when anybody calls Taiwan a rustic. Principally, the remainder of the world needs to protect their relationship with mainland China, which is now an financial energy, so that they’re hesitant to acknowledge Taiwan.
Taiwan is formally acknowledged by 13 UN member states, and it maintains unofficial relations with round 100 nations, together with the US and Japan. The solely cause it’s not formally thought-about a rustic by the UN is due to politics.
So in conclusion, sure, Taiwan is a rustic! It meets and exceeds the factors in each method.
Is Kosovo A Nation? Sure
Kosovo cut up off from the European nation of Serbia in 2008, and it’s acted as an impartial nation since then. They’ve their very own flag, passport, armed forces, and structure.
Though Kosovo has diplomatic recognition as a sovereign state by 101 member states of the United Nations, it hasn’t been allowed membership within the UN and the European Union as a result of Serbia continues to assert Kosovo as its personal, with Serbia’s ally Russia backing it up.
Principally, politics is the one cause anybody would deny that Kosovo is a rustic. Nonetheless, Kosovo is an impartial nation in each sense of the phrase, so it’s solely logical to incorporate it within the whole quantity.
Full Listing Of International locations In The World
Right here is an alphabetical listing of all of the nations on the planet, in response to the United Nations. That is the official member listing from their web site.
Plus, on the finish, I’ll listing a handful of disputed or miscellaneous nations that additionally meet the factors to be included:
- 1. Afghanistan
- 2. Albania
- 3. Algeria
- 4. Andorra
- 5. Angola
- 6. Antigua and Barbuda
- 7. Argentina
- 8. Armenia
- 9. Australia
- 10. Austria
- 11. Azerbaijan
- 12. Bahamas
- 13. Bahrain
- 14. Bangladesh
- 15. Barbados
- 16. Belarus
- 17. Belgium
- 18. Belize
- 19. Benin
- 20. Bhutan
- 21. Bolivia
- 22. Bosnia and Herzegovina
- 23. Botswana
- 24. Brazil
- 25. Brunei
- 26. Bulgaria
- 27. Burkina Faso
- 28. Burundi
- 29. Cabo Verde
- 30. Cambodia
- 31. Cameroon
- 32. Canada
- 33. Central African Republic
- 34. Chad
- 35. Chile
- 36. China
- 37. Colombia
- 38. Comoros
- 39. Congo
- 40. Costa Rica
- 41. Croatia
- 42. Cuba
- 43. Cyprus
- 44. Czech Republic (Czechia)
- 45. Côte d’Ivoire
- 46. Denmark
- 47. Djibouti
- 48. Dominica
- 49. Dominican Republic
- 50. DR Congo
- 51. Ecuador
- 52. Egypt
- 53. El Salvador
- 54. Equatorial Guinea
- 55. Eritrea
- 56. Estonia
- 57. Eswatini
- 58. Ethiopia
- 59. Fiji
- 60. Finland
- 61. France
- 62. Gabon
- 63. Gambia
- 64. Georgia
- 65. Germany
- 66. Ghana
- 67. Greece
- 68. Grenada
- 69. Guatemala
- 70. Guinea
- 71. Guinea-Bissau
- 72. Guyana
- 73. Haiti
- 74. Honduras
- 75. Hungary
- 76. Iceland
- 77. India
- 78. Indonesia
- 79. Iran
- 80. Iraq
- 81. Eire
- 82. Israel
- 83. Italy
- 84. Jamaica
- 85. Japan
- 86. Jordan
- 87. Kazakhstan
- 88. Kenya
- 89. Kiribati
- 90. Kuwait
- 91. Kyrgyzstan
- 92. Laos
- 93. Latvia
- 94. Lebanon
- 95. Lesotho
- 96. Liberia
- 97. Libya
- 98. Liechtenstein
- 99. Lithuania
- 100. Luxembourg
- 101. Madagascar
- 102. Malawi
- 103. Malaysia
- 104. Maldives
- 105. Mali
- 106. Malta
- 107. Marshall Islands
- 108. Mauritania
- 109. Mauritius
- 110. Mexico
- 111. Micronesia
- 112. Moldova
- 113. Monaco
- 114. Mongolia
- 115. Montenegro
- 116. Morocco
- 117. Mozambique
- 118. Myanmar (Burma)
- 119. Namibia
- 120. Nauru
- 121. Nepal
- 122. Netherlands
- 123. New Zealand
- 124. Nicaragua
- 125. Niger
- 126. Nigeria
- 127. North Korea
- 128. North Macedonia
- 129. Norway
- 130. Oman
- 131. Pakistan
- 132. Palau
- 133. Panama
- 134. Papua New Guinea
- 135. Paraguay
- 136. Peru
- 137. Philippines
- 138. Poland
- 139. Portugal
- 140. Qatar
- 141. Romania
- 142. Russia
- 143. Rwanda
- 144. Saint Kitts & Nevis
- 145. Saint Lucia
- 146. Samoa
- 147. San Marino
- 148. Sao Tome & Principe
- 149. Saudi Arabia
- 150. Senegal
- 151. Serbia
- 152. Seychelles
- 153. Sierra Leone
- 154. Singapore
- 155. Slovakia
- 156. Slovenia
- 157. Solomon Islands
- 158. Somalia
- 159. South Africa
- 160. South Korea
- 161. South Sudan
- 162. Spain
- 163. Sri Lanka
- 164. St. Vincent & Grenadines
- 165. Sudan
- 166. Suriname
- 167. Sweden
- 168. Switzerland
- 169. Syria
- 170. Tajikistan
- 171. Tanzania
- 172. Thailand
- 173. Timor-Leste
- 174. Togo
- 175. Tonga
- 176. Trinidad and Tobago
- 177. Tunisia
- 178. Turkey
- 179. Turkmenistan
- 180. Tuvalu
- 181. Uganda
- 182. Ukraine
- 183. United Arab Emirates
- 184. United Kingdom
- 185. United States of America
- 186. Uruguay
- 187. Uzbekistan
- 188. Vanuatu
- 189. Venezuela
- 190. Vietnam
- 191. Yemen
- 192. Zambia
- 193. Zimbabwe
- 194. Holy See¹
- 195. Palestine¹
- 196. Cook dinner Islands²
- 197. Niue²
- 198. Kosovo³
- 199. Taiwan³
¹ UN non-member observer states
² UN eligible non-member states
³ Unrecognized by UN
So How Many International locations Are There In The World?
As you’ll be able to see, it’s laborious to say precisely what number of nations there are on the planet.
The quick reply is that there are 193 member nations within the United Nations, plus 2 non-member observer states, 2 eligible non-member states, and a pair of impartial states which are unrecognized by the UN.
In conclusion, with this logic I believe it’s honest to say that there are no less than 199 nations on the planet. My inside OCD needs it to be a fair 200, however in the meanwhile that’s not the case!
Regularly Requested Questions
• What Is The World’s Latest Nation?
The most recent (or youngest) nation on the planet is presently South Sudan in Africa, which cut up from Sudan in 2011. It has nearly 13 million folks, and its capital and largest metropolis is Juba.
Earlier than that, the world’s latest UN-recognized nation was Montenegro in Europe, which separated from Serbia in 2006.
• What Is The World’s Oldest Nation?
It’s laborious to pinpoint the world’s oldest nation, however some contenders are China, Egypt, India, Iran, and Japan.
• What Is The World’s Greatest Nation?
The world’s greatest nation is Russia by far, with a complete space of 17,098,242 sq. kilometers (6,601,665 mi²). Russia spans 11 time zones throughout two continents (Asia and Europe) and covers one-tenth of all of the land on Earth.
The second and third greatest nations on the planet are Canada and the US, respectively. The UK might match into Canada greater than 40 occasions! There’s loads of great nature in each of those nations, with numerous landscapes and plenty of freedom to roam.
Learn Extra: Largest International locations In The World
• What Is The World’s Smallest Nation?
The world’s smallest nation in space and inhabitants is the Holy See — the Vatican Metropolis has a inhabitants of 800 folks and an space of 44 hectares (109 acres).
When you go by UN membership strictly, the world’s smallest nation by way of space is Monaco, which covers 202 hectares (499 acres). It has a inhabitants of about 40,000 folks, making it essentially the most densely populated nation on the planet.
One other fascinating nation is Nauru, which is a distant little island of 21 sq. kilometers (8 mi²). It’s the world’s least populous nation amongst UN membership states, and the 2nd smallest UN nation by space.
• What Is The Most Populous Nation?
China is presently the world’s most populous nation, with 1.44 billion folks. Nevertheless, India is anticipated to surpass this quantity quickly, placing it forward of China.
• What Is My Favourite Nation?
Lots of people ask me about my favourite locations to journey. I like to journey in Bali and the remainder of Indonesia, after all! Bali is finances pleasant, heat, and there’s a lot to see and do. I additionally love the folks of Bali and that’s why I married one among them. 🙂
Exterior of Indonesia, it will get more durable for me to decide on favorites. We’ve actually loved locations like Japan, Egypt, Myanmar, Hawaii, and many others. There are only a few locations we’ve traveled that we didn’t like ultimately or one other, even despite their flaws.
My Journey To Go to Each Nation
Thanks for trying! I hope you loved this dialogue of what number of nations are there on the planet in 2022.
Don’t neglect to bookmark my journey weblog for ideas, data, and images from my very own journey to go to each nation on Earth.
Pleased travels!
