How Many Countries Are There? (And How to Count the Ones You've Visited)
193, 195, or 197? The answer depends on who's counting. Here's how the numbers break down — and how to decide what counts as a country you've actually visited.
Ask three people how many countries there are and you'll get three answers: 193, 195, or "around 197." None of them are wrong. The number just depends on who is doing the counting and what they decide to include.
The short answer: 193 or 195
193 is the number of member states of the United Nations. This is the figure most institutions use, and it's the cleanest definition of "a country" in the legal sense.
195 adds the two permanent observer states: the Holy See (Vatican City) and Palestine. Both are recognized by the UN but are not full members. When a travel site or quiz says "195 countries," this is almost always why.
So when someone says "I want to visit every country," they usually mean these 193 or 195. Everything past that is where it gets interesting.
Why some lists say 197, 249, or "over 300"
Beyond the UN list, there are places that function like countries but aren't full members, plus territories, dependencies, and regions with their own borders, currencies, and entry stamps.
- Taiwan runs as an independent country in every practical sense but isn't a UN member.
- Kosovo is recognized by about half the world's governments.
- Greenland, Hong Kong, Puerto Rico, the Faroe Islands and dozens of others are territories or autonomous regions — you need a separate flight, sometimes a separate visa, and they feel like distinct destinations even though they belong to a parent country.
This is why "country counting" clubs disagree. The Travelers' Century Club recognizes 330 "countries and territories." NomadMania splits the world into more than 1,300 regions. Neither is more correct than the UN's 193 — they're just measuring something different.
How to decide what counts for *you*
There's no referee, so pick a rule and apply it consistently. Most travelers land on one of these:
1. UN members only (193/195). The strictest and most common. Clean and unarguable. 2. UN members + the places that function as countries (add Taiwan, Kosovo, etc.). A reasonable middle ground. 3. Countries + territories. The most generous. Counts Greenland, French Polynesia, and the like as separate.
Then there's the harder question: what counts as having visited a place at all? A two-hour airport layover? A cruise stop? Driving across a border for lunch? It's a genuinely debated point, but the honest version most people settle on is: you've been there if you left the airport and did something — ate a meal, slept a night, saw something worth remembering.