When you are on hardcore traveler settings eventually the question will come up of “how many countries have you been to”, people then answer, and the inevitable second question arises “but what do you define as a country”. This is not only a great question, but much like playing pool in a pub, everyone seems to have their own rules.

With this in mind, I put my stick in the sand and decree the YPT Country Collectors Rules of engagement. Just how many countries, exactly, are there? An important note though. Our country collectors list in no way endorses any country or claim over another, it merely represents the actual situation on the ground.

Table of Contents

• The 193 Club
• The Travellers’ Century Club
• FIFA
• 252 Countries and Territories
• Unrecognized countries
• Antarctica
• Micronations and New Country Projects
• So how many countries are there in the world then? There are 263
• Update on Collecting countries part 1
  • The Catalonia precedent
  • Why does Antarctica only count as one?
• Collecting countries what about name changes?
• Macedonia/North Macedonia
• Collecting countries – Former states
• And what about Bir Tawil, the area that no country claims? Does it count as a country?
• Collecting countries without land – The Sovereign Military Order of Malta
• List of countries in the world – how many countries are there – The YPT Definitive list

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 The 193 Club

There are 193 member nations of the UN, and this is by far the list that most people that try to visit “every” country in the world use. My problem with this is that it leaves out countries and territories such as the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, French Guiana for example. Can you really say you have been to England because you supped a Pina Colada on a beach in Bermuda? Also, the 193 does not include Taiwan or the Holy See (Vatican City). But the 193 plus the 2 makes 195 countries that YPT count.

Is the Vatican City a country? Yes, it very much is, which you can read here.

The Travellers’ Century Club 

At the opposite end of this spectrum you get the Travellers’ Century Club, that not only count every country and territory but seemly almost anywhere. How many countries exist for these folk? Over 600, including every emirate in the UAE, the states of Malaysia, and even Alaska. This is frankly silly!

FIFA 

FIFA has more members than other sporting agency on earth at 211 members, and we count all of them as “countries”, so that means England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland count. As well as the 211, there are an additional 12 that are not FIFA members, but members of regional confederations, which gives us 223, although this is still not our final number! We recently began sponsorship of a football club in Zanzibar, which you can read about here. In many ways Zanzibar perfectly fit the metric by which we would define a country, BUT whilst they have their own league, they do not have their own FIFA team. Thus they cannot qualify ala Wales style.

252 Countries and Territories 

Officially there are 249 countries and territories in the world that are pretty much self-governing, which is inclusive of the 193 UN members, the 2 non-UN members, and self-governing places like the previously mentioned Cayman Islands. Places like Gibraltar and Jersey would also thus be counted in the list. If we thus break up the UK into its 4 constituent countries, then we minus 1 and add 4. This gives us 252 Countries and territories in the world.

The Isle of Man would also thus fit into this list, a place I not only recently visited, but indeed counted. You can read if the Isle of Man is a country here.

Unrecognized countries 

Northern Cyprus might officially be part of Cyprus, but in reality, it is its own country. Therefore Transnistria, South Ossetia, Abkhazia, Western Sahara, Somaliland, Northern Cyprus, and Palestine would feature on the list, BUT Tibet would not. Why? Tibet is defacto and dejure part of China, no matter what your views on the rights and wrongs of it. Nagorno-Karabakh iw now no longer on this list as it has been taken over by Azerbaijan. In this context we also do not count governments-in-exile, such as West Papua either.

As for the Donetsk People’s Republic and the People’s Republic of Luhansk?? Previously we had included this on the list, but their recent annexation by Russia they do not count as a “country”, although if you visited either during their nominal independence then you can count them.

Note – this is not a political endorsement from YPT on the invasion of Ukraine.

The one big exception here is that you cannot count the unrecognized and the parent country. If you go to Transnistria you have been to Transnistria; you have not been to Moldova.

We then also have Bir Tawil, and The Sovereign Military Order of Malta, both of which we not only count, but go into more detail at the end of the article.

Antarctica 

I went to Antarctica a few years ago, but when I went to fill out a “countries visited” app on Facebook in order to show off to my friends, nothing. Antarctica, as per the YPT rules of engagement, counts as a country! Doesn’t matter what base you went to: you have done the country and continent of Antarctica.

WE do not do the century club thing here…

Micronations and New Country Projects 

If you visit a micronation invented by a guy in his living room, no matter how slick the website, it is still a crazy guy in his living room. But when we look at “new country projects” we hit a grey area. Sealand, which has had some limited recognition we would count, as would previoulsy have the Hutt River Province. One very sad update on this is that Hutt River has now rejoined Australia. Sadly they no longer count. Will we eventually count Islandia? Hopefully.

 

So how many countries are there in the world then? There are 263.

The Young Pioneer Tours question of how many countries are there in the world therefore stands at 267. The final count: 251 countries and territories + 6-8 Unrecognized Countries + 1 Antarctica + 1 New Country Projects + Bir Tawil + The Sovereign Military Order of Malta = 261 (list below)

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Update on Collecting countries part 1

I am happy to say that this blog piece not only caused a little bit of controversy, but also started a bit of debate, and interestingly threw me some new questions, that now need answering.

The Catalonia precedent

So you have visited Barcelona, and thus you count Spain as a “visited” country (without visiting non-Catalonia). Catalonia then declares itself independent, Spain decides to be reasonable about it (LOL), and we now have a Democratic Popular People’s Republic of Catalonia.

Did you visit Catalonia, Spain, both, or neither?

As per the YPT rules of engagement you visited the country that was the legal entity at the time, so in this case Spain. You have not visited the new country of Catalonia and would have to revisit to count that as a country.

Why does Antarctica only count as one?

Antarctica is a very tricky one, as technically no one owns it, although a lot of people claim it. That being said there are real bases there that run under the laws and rules of the country manning the base, so there is perhaps an argument for there being different options for Antarctica. With this in mind, for now we will count Antarctica as one country, but it is very much under review!

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Collecting countries what about name changes?

It has been a while since we revisited — and dare I say updated — our blog on what counts as a country, with a new precedent being established.

Macedonia/North Macedonia

I recently visited North Macedonia, my first time since it was merely known as FYR Macedonia (the good old days), and have been asked if it counts as a new country. It does not, and this is all down to it being a successor state. Northern Macedonia is a continuation of the former Republic of Macedonia. Sorry kids, but Northern Macedonia does not count as a new country.

Collecting countries – Former states

This is an interesting one because for me personally I have now visited ALL countries of the former Yugoslavia. Now whilst I would not count it towards my “visited countries” list, I think for those of us who travel a lot can have a little disclaimer.

For me it would look a little something like this:

144/195 UN Countries

173/269 YPT list of countries and territories

3 Former states (Yugoslavia, German Democratic Republic, Peoples Democratic Republic of Yemen).

I get the former states of FYR Yugolslavia, South Yemen and the German Democratic Republic. Sadly you do not get the Soviet Union unless you visit all 15 former republics, PLUS Transnsitria, , Abkhazia, and South Ossetia. Nagorno_Karabakh no longer counts and the rules are what they are.

If though you visited before their dissolution then that also counts as having visited.

And what about Bir Tawil, the area that no country claims? Does it count as a country?

Will the controversy never go away? One of the most interesting things about this list is you do get the odd curve-ball. Bir Tawil is an area of land between Egypt and Sudan not claimed by either country. If you go there you are not in Egypt, or Sudan, so where are you? You are in Bir Tawil. We therefore count Bir Tawil on our list. Bir Tawil counts as a country.

Collecting countries without land – The Sovereign Military Order of Malta

I recently had another interesting anomaly brought up to me, that we at YPT would certainly count as a country. And that is the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, or SMOM. You can read more about their crazy tale here. Yet despite not having a country, they are recognized as such, and have sovereign land. Therefore they can be visited and they count.

So, how can you count a country without land, but not count countries fighting for independence,or governments-in-exile? A line has to be drawn somewhere, and we have drawn our line when it comes to collecting countries. We can argue that Kurdistan for example should be a country, but it does not fit into any of our criteria. In fact if you included every independence movement then we would have to include Cornwall. The SMOM are different in that they are a recognized state and have every function of a state, with the one exception of land. A tough call, but one we have indeed made.

List of countries in the world – how many countries are there? – The YPT Definitive list (this can and will change).

Abkhazia
Afghanistan
Åland Islands
Albania
Algeria
American Samoa
Andorra
Angola
Anguilla
Antarctica
Antigua and Barbuda
Argentina
Armenia
Aruba
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Bahamas
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Barbados
Belarus
Belgium
Belize
Benin
Bermuda
Bhutan
Bir Tawil
Bolivia (Plurinational State of)
Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Botswana
Bouvet Island
Brazil
British Indian Ocean Territory
Brunei Darussalam
Bulgaria
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cabo Verde
Cambodia
Cameroon
Canada
Cayman Islands
Central African Republic
Chad
Chile
China
Christmas Island
Cocos (Keeling) Islands
Colombia
Comoros
Congo
Congo, Democratic Republic of the
Cook Islands
Costa Rica
Côte d’Ivoire
Croatia
Cuba
Curaçao
Cyprus
Czechia
Denmark
Djibouti
Dominica
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
Egypt
El Salvador
England
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Estonia
Eswatini
Ethiopia
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)
Faroe Islands
Fiji
Finland
France
French Guiana
French Polynesia
French Southern Territories
Gabon
Gambia
Georgia
Germany
Ghana
Gibraltar
Greece
Greenland
Grenada
Guadeloupe
Guam
Guatemala
Guernsey
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Guyana
Haiti
Heard Island and McDonald Islands
Holy See/Vatican City
Honduras
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Iran (Islamic Republic of)
Iraq
Ireland
Isle of Man
Israel
Italy
Jamaica
Japan
Jersey
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kiribati
Korea (Democratic People’s Republic of)
Korea, Republic of
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
Lao People’s Democratic Republic
Latvia
Lebanon
Lesotho
Liberia
Libya
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macao
Madagascar
Malawi
Malaysia
Maldives
Mali
Malta
Marshall Islands
Martinique
Mauritania
Mauritius
Mayotte
Mexico
Micronesia (Federated States of)
Moldova, Republic of
Monaco
Mongolia
Montenegro
Montserrat
Morocco
Mozambique
Myanmar
Namibia
Nauru
Nagorno-Karabakh (since removed)
Nepal
Netherlands
New Caledonia
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Niger
Nigeria
Niue
Norfolk Island
North Macedonia
Northern Cyprus
Northern Ireland
Northern Mariana Islands
Norway
Oman
Pakistan
Palau
Palestine, State of
Panama
Papua New Guinea
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Pitcairn
Poland
Portugal
Puerto Rico
Qatar
Réunion
Romania
Russian Federation
Rwanda
Saint Barthélemy
Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia
Saint Martin (French part)
Saint Pierre and Miquelon
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Samoa
San Marino
Sao Tome and Principe
Saudi Arabia
Scotland
Sealand
Senegal
Serbia
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Singapore
Sint Maarten (Dutch part)
Slovakia
Slovenia
Solomon Islands
Somalia
Somaliland
South Africa
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
South Ossetia
South Sudan
Sovereign Military Order of Malta
Spain
Sri Lanka
Sudan
Suriname
Svalbard and Jan Mayen
Sweden
Switzerland
Syrian Arab Republic
Taiwan, Province of China
Tajikistan
Tanzania, United Republic of
Thailand
Timor-Leste
Togo
Tokelau
Tonga
Transnistria
Trinidad and Tobago
Tunisia
Turkey
Turkmenistan
Turks and Caicos Islands
Tuvalu
Uganda
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
United States of America
United States Minor Outlying Islands
Uruguay
Uzbekistan
Vanuatu
Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)
Viet Nam
Virgin Islands (British)
Virgin Islands (U.S.)
Wales
Wallis and Futuna
Western Sahara
Yemen
Zambia
Zimbabwe

So whilst our list might be controversial to some, much like pub pool rules it is the house thet decides and decide we have……

Don’t agree? Think we missed somewhere? Want to ask about a specific place? Let the debate begin!

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