Countries in the world
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How many countries are in the world?
Today, there are 197
countries in the world:
193 UN members + 2 UN
observers + Taiwan + Kosovo.
The United Nations, as the most influential international
organization, is often considered the start point for the correct counting of the
total number. All the 193 UN members are independent countries recognized
worldwide.
Becoming a part of the United Nations is not so easy. First of
all, the Security Council is voting and the consent of all 5 permanent
members of the Council (the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia,
and China) is needed for the adoption of the new candidate. After that, the
UN General Assembly approves this decision by no less than two-thirds of
the votes. Such a complicated procedure ensures that all the accepted UN
members have been recognized by the vast majority of other states and have
established diplomatic relations with them.
Two UN observers, Holy See (Vatican)
and Palestine are both countries because the UN observer status
confirms the certain degree of their international recognition. The Holy See
maintains bilateral relations with the majority of the world through its 180
diplomatic missions in independent states and international organizations.
Palestine nowadays is recognized by 137 countries.
All other self-proclaimed entities are considered "partially recognized countries". Some of them either do not control
their own territory, like Western Sahara or are recognized only by 1-5 UN
members and by partially recognized subjects like themselves. For example, the
independence of Northern Cyprus is confirmed only by Turkey; the Republic
of Abkhazia has obtained the acceptance of 4 members of the UN; the
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic statehood is accepted only by three partially
recognized states. The list may go on, but there are two exceptions:
Taiwan is officially
recognized by 15 countries (14 UN members and one UN observer). This self-governed
territory with a population more of than 23 million people has all signs of
statehood and plays a significant role in the region as one of the highly
developed economies in the Asia Pacific. It participates in the World Trade
Organization (WTO) and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). Taiwan has
its diplomatic missions (official and unofficial) in more than 100 states and
maintains unofficial bilateral relations with the United States, Canada,
UK, European Union, Germany, France, Russia, India, Australia, Japan,
Indonesia, Philippines, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, South
Africa, Nigeria, and others.
Kosovo is officially
recognized by 98 UN member countries and by Taiwan. It also has obtained the
membership of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
Such wide recognition of these two entities could be a basis
to include Taiwan and Kosovo in the list of independent states.
At the same time, China claims that Taiwan is a part of its internal territory,
and Serbia does the same by insisting that Kosovo is its autonomous province.
Nowadays there is no consensus on the issue of the total
quantity of countries because still there is no universally agreed definition
of "country" and there is no one single competent international body,
which could correctly answer the question, "How many are there in the
world?".
All of the above is our own answer, which is based on the
real practice of official and unofficial international relations existing today
in the world.
