How many countries are there in the world?
Depending on the question what is a country, there are several answers. Is a country a country when it is recognized by the United Nation then the answer is 192. But if you count all independent pieces of territory the you have to include
Vatican City,
Kosovo and
Chinese Taipei (Taiwan ) as well.
If we add all the pieces of land under jurisdiction by other countries, like
Aruba,
Christmas Island,
Isle of Man,
Hong Kong and many others and we include regions like
Antarctica and
Palestine then we could argue that there are 247 different countries.
There is even more.
The United States Minor Outlying Islands are counted for only one country but in fact it is a collection of 8 islands and atolls like Midway island. And even than there are some uninhabited islands and atolls like Bassas da India.
World Country has information on population, language, religion, Olympic achievements, Google Maps and many other stuff on the 247 countries of the World.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z What is a continent? There is no worldwide consensus about what constitutes a continent. All you really need to know is that the convention used on this website is that the Earth has seven distinct continents: Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, South America, Antarctica, and Australia.
If you’re interested in the history of the word and its meaning, please continue reading! Otherwise, if you’re looking for continent or country specific information, just click the concerning button at the top of this page.
History
The word ‘continent’ is derived from the Latin terra continens, meaning connected land or continuous land. The word was used in translations of Greek and Latin writings about the ‘parts’ of the world. Because at some points, Asia and Africa, and North and South America are only separated by artificial canals, they would in the literal sense be considered together as one continent. In history, there have been many different ideas about ‘which land masses are continents’ and still, in some parts of the world they consider Europe and Asia as one continent. And some say there is one America, thereby combining North and South together.
In 1752, Emanuel Bowen defined a continent as "a large space of dry land comprehending many countries all joined together, without any separation by water.” With this definition Europe, Asia, and Africa together form one continent and America forms another. But convention won from definition in this case, and nowadays, the most common convention (and the one used on this website) is that the Earth has seven continents: Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, South America, Antarctica, and Australia.
The first continents to be named as such are Europe and Asia. Greek mariners gave these names to the lands on either side of the waterways (the Aegean Sea, the Dardanelles strait, the Sea of Marmara, the Bosporus strait and the Black Sea). Greek philosophers then debated whether or not Libya (now Africa) should be considered as a ‘separate part’ or as part of Asia. The first idea prevailed.
When (South) America was discovered (around 1502), a fourth continent was born. In 1505 North America was thought of as part of Asia, but in maps of 1507 the continents are separate. Yet most geographers still combined North and South America, so that there were four continents in total.
In 1606 Australia was discovered, but it was considered to be part of Asia. Only in the late 18th century, more and more geographers started calling Australia a continent. In 1802 Antarctica was discovered and described as the fifth/sixth/seventh continent by Charles Wilkes in 1838.
Until today, there is no worldwide convention. Distinction between North and South America and Europe and Asia is still nontrivial in some parts of the world.