The two most populous countries in the world are in Asia, China and India. Asia counts 49 generally recognized sovereign states, all members of the United Nations, plus two states with a kind of limited, but substantial, international recognition, Taiwan (ROC), and Palestine (State of Palestine). The Far East, the Middle East, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the largest and most populous continent has many subregions. Twelve independent countries share the continent of South America, plus one French overseas department, French Guiana, and two dependent territories, the Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (both British overseas territories). And there is Greenland, the largest island in the world is a dependency of the Kingdom of Denmark. In North America (which includes Central America and the Caribbean), there are 23 sovereign countries, eight inhabited dependent territories, and about a dozen or so other territories, remnants from the colonial period, nicely named overseas departments, overseas collectivities, and constituent countries. Approximately 1 billion people live on the double continent. There are 35 sovereign states in the Americas. An estimated 1.34 billion people live on the second-largest continent (in 2020). There are 54 sovereign states (countries) in Africa. The probably best known dependent territories are Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Puerto Rico, Guam, French Polynesia, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Mayotte, Réunion, New Caledonia, Aruba, Curaçao, Bermuda, the Falkland Islands, and Gibraltar. Both the ROC and China (PRC) still officially (constitutionally) claim mainland China and the Taiwan Area as part of their territories.Īmong the partially recognized states or state-like entities are Abkhazia, Kosovo, the Cook Islands, Northern Cyprus, Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (Western Sahara), Somaliland, and Transnistria.ĭependencies are territorial units that do not have full political independence or sovereignty they are under the jurisdiction of a sovereign state such as France, the United Kingdom, or the United States, but are not formally annexed. Besides sovereign nations, there are autonomous self-ruling political units that are part of a sovereign state but not part of the mainland, and there are self-ruling territories, but they are not or only partially recognized as such.įor example, Taiwan (ROC), the island state off the southeast coast of China, with a functioning multi-party democracy and a population of 23.6 million people, has an uncertain political status. There are other states or countries or country-like geopolitical entities that are not members of the UN. Not included in the IMF list, nor the United Nations list, are some country-like territories, geopolitical units that are de facto autonomous but disputed or otherwise not generally recognized, such as Abkhazia, Northern Cyprus, Saharawi (Western Sahara), Somaliland, and Transnistria, which would add five more countries to the list.Īnd there are nations that have their own territory and cultural identity but are part of a parent state entity, such as the American Indian nations of North America or the Uighurs in the autonomous region of Xinjiang, or Tibet the former Tibetan Empire is now, not entirely voluntarily, an autonomous region of China. * The United Nations' "UN/LOCODE Code List by Country and Territory" lists 248 countries and territories the list also includes Antarctica. The IMF, the International Monetary Fund, lists on its "Country Data Profile" page 237 countries, without distinction, whether it is a sovereign country or a dependent territory. Today there are 195 recognized sovereign states on the planet, the two countries which are not members of the United Nations are Palestine and Vatican City (they are so-called observer states). Īnyhow, there are 193, 195, 237, 245, 248, or 253 countries in the world, depending on definition.ġ93 sovereign states are members of the United Nations, the world's largest intergovernmental organization. How many countries are there in the world?Ī lot, and no, Nambia, Button, and Nipple are not among them.
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