List of countries

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This is an alphabetical list of countries of the world, including independent states (both those that are internationally recognised and generally unrecognised), inhabited dependent territories and areas of special sovereignty.

Such inclusion criteria means the list does not treat the word "country" as synonymous with "sovereign state," as one may often find in colloquial usage. For a list of independent states only, see the list of sovereign states.

The list covers all areas under the jurisdiction of the listed countries, namely territory, territorial waters (including internal waters and contiguous zone), exclusive economic zone, continental shelf, and airspace.

The names of countries in the list are given in English and include both an English version of the short official names (e.g. Afghanistan) and an English version of the (longer) official names (e.g. Islamic Republic of Afghanistan).^[1] The listing of any name in this article is not meant to imply an official position in any naming dispute.

Contents:	Included entities - Entities not included 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 See also - References - Footnotes - External links

Entities included in this article

On this list are 245 entities considered to be countries. This corresponds to:

202 sovereign states:
- 193 states with general international recognition:
  - 192 member states of the United Nations (UN).
  - 1 state with general international recognition but not UN membership, governed by the Holy See (a UN permanent observer), the Vatican City.
- 9 states lacking general international recognition, none of which are UN members, that are nonetheless defined as states in the body of customary international law, drawing on the precedent of the Montevideo Convention:
  - 1 state, no longer a UN member since late 1971, recognized by 23 UN member states and the Holy See (Vatican City), and currently with de facto international relations with many others, the Republic of China (commonly referred to as Taiwan).
  - 1 state, member of the African Union and the Asian-African Strategic Partnership formed at the 2005 Asian-African Conference, recognized by 43 UN member states but never admitted to the UN itself, with most of its claimed territory under Moroccan de facto administration, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic in Western Sahara.
  - 1 state, member of the Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic Conference, recognized by more than 100 UN member states though never itself a UN member, with no sovereignty over its claimed territories, the State of Palestine in the Palestinian territories.^[2]
  - 6 de facto independent states lacking any significant measure of diplomatic recognition from other states:
    - 1 de facto independent state, diplomatically recognized by no UN member states except Turkey, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.^[3]
    - 5 de facto independent states, namely Abkhazia,^[4] Nagorno-Karabakh,^[5] Pridnestrovie,^[6] Somaliland,^[7] and South Ossetia,^[8] none recognized by any UN member states.
38 inhabited dependent territories:
- 3 external territories of Australia (Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands and Norfolk Island).
- 2 overseas countries in the Kingdom of Denmark (Greenland and Faroe Islands).
- 7 overseas territories of France:^[9]
  - 1 sui generis (unique) community (New Caledonia).
  - 6 overseas collectivities:
    - 1 overseas country (French Polynesia)
    - 1 departmental collectivity (Mayotte)
    - 1 territorial collectivity (Saint Pierre and Miquelon)
    - 2 collectivities (Saint Barthelemy and Saint Martin)
    - 1 territory (Wallis and Futuna)
- 2 overseas countries in the Kingdom of the Netherlands (Aruba and Netherlands Antilles).
- 3 dependent territories of New Zealand:
  - 2 states in free association with New Zealand (Cook Islands and Niue).
  - 1 overseas territory (Tokelau).
- 16 dependent territories of the United Kingdom:
  - 3 Crown dependencies (Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man).
  - 13 overseas territories (Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat, Pitcairn Islands, Saint Helena (and its dependencies Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha), Turks and Caicos Islands, and the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia).
- 5 unincorporated territories of the United States:
  - 2 commonwealths (Northern Mariana Islands and Puerto Rico).
  - 2 organized territories (Guam and U.S. Virgin Islands).
  - 1 de facto organized territory lacking an Organic Act (American Samoa).
5 areas of special sovereignty:
- 4 special entities recognized by international treaty or agreement (Åland in Finland, Svalbard in Norway, as well as the 2 special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China - Hong Kong and Macau).
- 1 UN-administered territory inside the de jure territory of a sovereign state and under de jure sovereignty of that sovereign state (Kosovo in Serbia under UN interim civilian administration).

In the Annex to the list of countries, an outline is given on the entities not included in this list. This includes distinct political and legal entities which are countries but are considered integral parts of a sovereign state, notably the constituent countries of the United Kingdom and the Länder of Germany.