How many countries are there in the world - I say less than 3,62,947!!!!

 This post is about how.. I know you read the title so let’s just continue. At first glance, this might seem obvious. Just look at a map and count how many countries are there, but it is not that simple. ( if it is so simple, why am I making this post ).

Depending upon whom you ask, the number of countries range from 192 to over 200.

What constitutes a Country?

Let’s first try to define what constitutes a country. Suppose I want to create my own country, what should I do. There are few steps to do:

Acquire Land of your own

I should first find some land, which is not controlled by any other country. Leaving out Antarctica, there are very few areas in the world that are not controlled or claimed by any country. The most famous example is Bir Tawil, which lies between Egypt and Sudan. 

Great, that means can I go and create my own country there.  Sadly, that is not enough. 

Stable Population: To be a country, you need people living there permanently. Bir Tawil unfortunately has no population, as there is no water or any other resources to sustain people.

Stable Government: It is not enough if people and land are there. There should be some form of government to govern the people. It could be democratic, monarchic, or my favourite, Socialist (which sounds better than  authoritarian dictatorship)

International Recognition: What is the use of controlling land and having people and government if other countries don’t recognize or treat you as a country.

This last one is where there is a lot of confusion on the exact number of countries in the world.

United Nations:  To get recognition, the best way is to become a member of the United Nations (UN), but that is not easy.   

There are 193 full members in the United Nations and 2 Observer States; the Vatican ( Holy See ) and Palestine.

Partially Recognized Countries

Having United Nations membership does not mean that all other countries recognize you.  The two most popular examples of this are China and  Israel.

Israel and Palestine: Before 1947, Israel and Palestine were part of the United Kingdom’s  colony. When UK left that region in 1948, the UN passed a resolution to split the region into two countries, Israel and Palestine. Israel and Palestine both wanted to control the whole region and a deadly war broke out. Palestine was backed by Arab countries, while Israel was alone. Israel won the war finally and occupied Palestine.

After long struggle Palestine got  some sort of independence when it became an observer state of the UN in 2012. It is recognized by 138 of the 192 UN members. However Israel, USA, Canada, Mexico and most of western Europe do not recognize Palestine as a country.  

Israel is not recognized by at least 28 members of the United Nations (Most of the Arab countries do not recognize Israel).

China – Taiwan:  Taiwan is a small island of the coast of Mainland China.  Before 1949, both Mainland China and Taiwan were a single country called as Republic of China(ROC). After 1949,  there was a civil war in China between the Communists and the Nationalists , which was won by the Communists, and they took over mainland China and called it as People Republic of China (PRC).

The Nationalists fled to Taiwan and have governing it since. They still claim the entirety of China as theirs.  In fact official name of Taiwan is still Republic of China. Obviously, PRC claims control of Taiwan. This issue is unresolved ever since.

Taiwan for all practical purposes, functions as an independent country. But only 15 countries recognize  it is Original China.  However, most countries have unofficial relations with Taiwan, but do not officially recognize it. Even India does not recognize Taiwan as a country. This is because China’s power at the world stage.

Fun fact: Bhutan is the only country that does not recognize both PRC and ROC!!!

Serbia - Kosovo:

Before 2008, Kosovo used to be part of Serbia, one of the countries that broke up from Yugoslavia, but Kosovo decided to break up from Serbia but still about half of the world again including India officially does not recognize Kosovo. Kosovo is not yet admitted to UN.

Minor Non Recognition cases:

There are other UN member nations which are not recognized by few other members.  Some of them are

• Armenia (Not recognized by Pakistan),
• North Korea (Not recognized by France, Japan, and South Korea)
• South Korea (Not recognized by who else, North Korea)
• Cyprus (Not recognized by Turkey).

 Countries with Little or No recognition:

There are a few countries which are practically independent but have no recognition or recognized by only few countries. We already saw Taiwan as prime example of this. Other ones in this list are:

    Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic: This country borders Morocco but claimed by Morocco as its own. It is recognized by 41 countries.

    Abkhazia, South Ossetia: These regions are formerly part of Georgia but they have declared their independence and act as independent countries. They are recognized only by Russia and Venezuela, Nicaragua, Nauru and Syria.

    Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus: Cyprus is an island Nation in Mediterranean Sea. Turkey invaded Cyprus and occupied Northern part of it and declared it as an independent country. Of course, it is recognized only by Turkey. As a side note, this small island of Cyprus is shared by three countries (Cyprus, Northern Cyprus and United Kingdom) as well as the UN buffer zone.

    Transnistria: It is part of Moldova which has declared its independence and acts as an independent country. No other country recognizes it.

    Donetsk and Luhansk: These are regions in Eastern Ukraine, which recently declared independence only in March 2022. They are recognized only by Russia.

As you see, forming a country and getting recognition from other countries is not a piece of cake. Since I am not getting a country, let me at least have a piece of cake!!!

Now according to you, how many countries are there in the world?