Every Country in the World

Here is my own personal list of what I consider to be every country in the world. You’d think this would be straight forward, but a list of every country is actually very debatable! The easy way would be to simply follow the United Nations’ official list of countries, but in my opinion this is deeply flawed.

Their list is strictly political, so it ignores other equally important factors such as history, culture, geography, and more. If I visited Greenland for example, I could also claim to have ben to Denmark since they are politically the same country. For this reason I consider most dependencies to be countries, but not necessarily all of them. This is where things get a bit gray, and I’ll breakdown my philosophy on this.

1) Afghanistan
2) Albania
3) Algeria
4) America Samoa
5) Andorra
6) Angola
7) Antarctica
8) Aruba
9) Argentina
10) Armenia
11) Australia
12) Austria
13) Azerbaijan
14) Bahamas
15) Bahrain
16) Bangladesh
17) Barbados
18) Belarus
19) Belgium
20) Belize
21) Benin
22) Bermuda
23) Bhutan
24) Bolivia
25) Bosnia & Herzegovina
26) Botswana
27) Brazil
28) Brunei
29) Bulgaria
30) Burkina Faso
31) Burundi
32) Cambodia
33) Cameroon
34) Canada
35) Cape Verde Islands
36) Cayman Islands
37) Central African Republic
38) Chad
39) Chile
40) China
41) Christmas Islands
42) Colombia
43) Comoros Islands
44) Congo
45) Congo DR/
46) Cook Islands
47) Costa Rica
48) Croatia
49) Cuba
50) Cyprus
51) Czechia
52) Denmark
53) Djibouti
54) Dominica
55) Dominican Republic
56) Dutch Antilles
57) East Timor

58) Easter Island
59) Ecuador
60) Egypt
61) El Salvador
62) Equatorial Guinea
63) Eritrea
64) Estonia
65) Ethiopia
66) Falkland Islands
67) Faroe Islands
68) Fiji Islands
69) Finland
70) France
71) French Guiana
72) French Polynesia
73) Gabon
74) Gambia
75) Georgia
76) Germany
77) Ghana
78) Greece
79) Greenland
80) Grenada
81) Guadeloupe
82) Guam
83) Guatemala
84) Guinea
85) Guinea-Bissau
86) Guyana
87) Haiti
88) Honduras
89) Hong Kong
90) Hungary
91) Iceland
92) India
93) Indonesia
94) Iran
95) Iraq
96) Ireland
97) Israel
98) Italy
99) Ivory Coast
100) Jamaica
101) Japan
102) Jordan
103) Kazakhstan
104) Kenya
105) Kiribati Islands
106) Kosovo
107) Kuwait
108) Kyrgyzstan
109) Laos
110) Latvia
111) Lebanon
112) Lesotho
113) Liberia
114) Libya

115) Liechtenstein
116) Lithuania
117) Luxembourg
118) Macedonia
119) Madagascar
120) Malawi
121) Malaysia
122) Maldive Islands
123) Mali
124) Malta
125) Martinique
126) Mauritania
127) Mauritius
128) Mayotte
129) Mexico
130) Micronesia
131) Moldova
132) Monaco
133) Mongolia
134) Montenegro
135) Montserrat
136) Morocco
137) Mozambique
138) Myanmar
139) Namibia
140) Nauru
141) Nepal
142) Netherlands
143) New Caledonia
144) New Zealand
145) Nicaragua
146) Niger
147) Nigeria
148) Niue
149) North Korea
150) Northern Mariana
151) Norway
152) Oman
153) Pakistan
154) Palau
155) Palestine
156) Panama
157) Papua New Guinea
158) Paraguay
159) Peru
160) Philippines
161) Pitcairn Island
162) Poland
163) Portugal
164) Puerto Rico
165) Qatar
166) Reunion
167) Romania
168) Russia
169) Rwanda
170) Samoa

171) Sao Tome
172) Saudi Arabia
173) Senegal
174) Serbia
175) Sierra Leone
176) Singapore
177) Slovakia
178) Slovenia
179) Solomon Islands
180) Somalia
181) South Africa
182) South Korea
183) South Sudan
184) Spain
185) Sri Lanka
186) St. Helena
187) St. Kitts & Nevis
188) St. Lucia
189) St. Vincent & Gren.
190) Sudan
191) Suriname
192) Swaziland
193) Sweden
194) Switzerland
195) Syria
196) Taiwan
197) Tajikistan
198) Tanzania
199) Thailand
200) Togo
201) Tokelau Islands
202) Tonga
203) Trinidad
204) Tunisia
205) Turkey
206) Turkmenistan
207) Turks & Caicos
208) Tuvalu
209) UAE
210) Uganda
211) Ukraine
212) United Kingdom
213) United States
214) Uruguay
215) Uzbekistan
216) Vanuatu
217) Venezuela
218) Vietnam
219) Virgin Islands US
220) Virgin Islands UK
221) Wallis & Futuna
222) Western Sahara
223) Yemen
224) Zambia
225) Zimbabwe

When it comes to official lists of every country in the world, almost all major governments agree there are nearly 200 countries. Determining which territories should be countries is the challenge. Some who don’t follow the UN list have created strict definitions. One example I saw claims that any geographically isolated area that has a population of over 100,000 is a country.

With these rules this would name Puerto Rico a separate country from the United States, (which I would agree with). But this also suggests that Hawaii, Alaska, and even Canada’s Prince Edward Island are their own countries, (which I would not agree with).

Like the UN list, this geographical rule ignores too many other important factors. Usually I look at each dependency or territory on a case by case basis focusing on culture, size and the distance from the mainland. In my opinion the easiest way to look at which territories should be considered countries is from a native’s perspective. I don’t think any American would fly from California to Alaska and consider themselves to have left the country. Despite the geographical distance Alaska is politically part of the US like any other state, and for the most part shares the language and culture of the mainland. Puerto Rico on the other hand has a different form of government, along with significant differences in culture, ethnic groups, and their primary language.

Culture: Culture is one of the easiest ways to determine if what territories should make it on my every country list. Take some obvious examples like France and its territory of French Guiana in South America. I wouldn’t expect a traveler to do an Amazon trek, meet with tribal natives and return home to discuss his amazing trip to France.
Distance: Using distance as a factor isn’t as simple as culture. While the culture on the Falkland Islands might not be drastically different from that of the UK, their extreme distance can’t be ignored. One could argue the same for Hawaii or Alaska, but these states are an integral part of America that largely shares the same language, culture, and political power as other states. The Falkland islands have a very small population and are not comparable to other parts of the United Kingdom such as Wales or Scotland. In my mind it exists a small distant country in the opposite hemisphere.

Size: It might sound easier to simply include every territory as a separate country, but many territories exist as extremely small areas with tiny populations. Wake Island near Hawaii is a territory that I do not consider a country because it has only a small base of 50 people working on the islands. Other similar examples are places like the Rock of Gibraltar in Spain, a British territory that is so small it could hardly be considered a country.
Rebel Territories: Rebel territories are actually easy, I don’t think I’ve ever considered any rebel territories to be their own countries. This might not make the rebels happy, but the reality is they generally occupy very small undefined parts of countries and rarely achieve independence.

Every Country

Every Country in the World

Two photos of every country I’ve traveled to