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

A
Afghanistan	Åland Islands	Albania
Algeria	American Samoa	Andorra
Angola	Anguilla	Antarctica
Antigua and Barbuda	Argentina	Armenia
Aruba	Australia	Austria
Azerbaijan
B
Bahamas	Bahrain	Bangladesh
Barbados	Belarus	Belgium
Belize	Benin	Bermuda
Bhutan	Bolivia	Bosnia and Herzegovina
Botswana	Bouvet Island	Brazil
British Indian Ocean Territory	British Virgin Islands	Brunei Darussalam
Bulgaria	Burkina Faso	Burundi
C
Cambodia	Cameroon	Canada
Cape Verde	Cayman Islands	Central African Republic
Chad	Chile	People`s Republic of China
Chinese Taipei	Christmas Island	Cocos (Keeling) Islands
Colombia	Comoros	Congo
Congo (Democratic Republic of the)	Cook Islands	Costa Rica
Côte d`Ivoire	Croatia	Cuba
Cyprus	Czech Republic
D
Denmark	Djibouti	Dominica
Dominican Republic
E
Ecuador	Egypt	El Salvador
Equatorial Guinea	Eritrea	Estonia
Ethiopia
F
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)	Faroe Islands	Federated States of Micronesia
Fiji	Finland	France
French Guiana	French Polynesia	French Southern Territories
G
Gabon	Gambia	Georgia
Germany	Ghana	Gibraltar
Greece	Greenland	Grenada
Guadeloupe	Guam	Guatemala
Guernsey	Guinea	Guinea-Bissau
Guyana
H
Haiti	Heard Island and McDonald Islands	Honduras
Hong Kong, China	Hungary
I
Iceland	India	Indonesia
Iraq	Ireland	Islamic Republic of Iran
Isle of Man	Israel	Italy
J
Jamaica	Japan	Jersey
Jordan
K
Kazakhstan	Kenya	Kiribati
Korea (Dem. People`s Republic of )	Kosovo	Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
L
Lao People`s Democratic Republic	Latvia	Lebanon
Lesotho	Liberia	Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
Liechtenstein	Lithuania	Luxembourg
M
Macau	Madagascar	Malawi
Malaysia	Maldives	Mali
Malta	Marshall Islands	Martinique
Mauritania	Mauritius	Mayotte
Mexico	Moldova (Republic of)	Monaco
Mongolia	Montenegro	Montserrat
Morocco	Mozambique	Myanmar
N
Namibia	Nauru	Nepal
Netherlands	Netherlands Antilles	New Caledonia
New Zealand	Nicaragua	Niger
Nigeria	Niue	Norfolk Island
Northern Mariana Islands	Norway
O
Oman
P
Pakistan	Palau	Palestine
Panama	Papua New Guinea	Paraguay
Peru	Philippines	Pitcairn
Poland	Portugal	Puerto Rico
Q
Qatar
R
Republic of Korea	Macedonia (Republic of )	Réunion
Romania	Russian Federation	Rwanda
S
Saint Barthélemy	Saint Helena	Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia	Saint Martin	Saint Pierre and Miquelon
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	Samoa	San Marino
São Tomé and Príncipe	Saudi Arabia	Senegal
Serbia	Seychelles	Sierra Leone
Singapore	Slovakia	Slovenia
Solomon Islands	Somalia	South Africa
Sth Georgia and the Sth Sandwich Islands	Spain	Sri Lanka
Sudan	Suriname	Svalbard and Jan Mayen
Swaziland	Sweden	Switzerland
Syria
T
Tajikistan	Tanzania(United Republic of )	Thailand
Timor-Leste	Togo	Tokelau
Tonga	Trinidad and Tobago	Tunisia
Turkey	Turkmenistan	Turks and Caicos Islands
Tuvalu
U
Uganda	Ukraine	United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom	United States Min. Outlying Islands	United States of America
Uruguay	Uzbekistan
V
Vanuatu	Vatican City	Venezuela
Vietnam	Virgin Islands
W
Wallis and Futuna	Western Sahara
Y
Yemen
Z
Zambia	Zimbabwe

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.