You would think this is a simple question. But with no mutually acceptable definition of what constitutes a country, there is actually much debate on the subject. The United Nations (UN) recognizes 193 countries and those of us who are extreme world travelers agree upon that number. The UN also recognizes two additional observer states, Vatican City (a non-member city-state) and Palestine (a non-member state). The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has established country codes for 249 nations, 56 of which are not UN members. But this is not generally recognized as an appropriate country count.
(Vatican City)
Arguments arise as to whether nations like Taiwan and Kosovo are truly countries or not. Neither is unanimously recognized as a country by the United Nations despite supporting both nations in spirit, with only 6% of the UN recognizing Taiwan and 54% recognizing Kosovo as independent countries. Niue is another example of a nation not contained on the UN’s list of 193 countries (despite President Joe Biden recognizing them as independent in 2022). Even the International Olympic Committee (IOC) won’t allow Niue to compete in the Olympic Games, reserving that honor for nations they deem independent. So the country count of 193 is pretty widely accepted. Of course, if we really want to muddy the waters, the IOC does allow Taiwan to compete as a separate team from China. But that doesn’t disprove the information I’ve provided here.
(Kosovo)
Regardless of debate, the majority of geographical experts can agree that the world contains 193 official countries. That list hasn’t changed since the admission of Montenegro on June 28, 2006, and South Sudan on July 14, 2011. As further evidence, there tends to be a consensus among extreme world travelers that in order to lay claim to visiting every “country” on earth for the few who have done it, they must visit all 195 UN-recognized members including Vatican City and Palestine. This further confirms the 193 country count, but also respects the existence of the other two non-member states.
(Lexie Alford, the youngest person to visit all 195 UN-recognized members)
To make this even more maddening, the Guinness Book of World Records and Lexie Alford herself both state that she is the youngest to travel to “all 196 sovereign nations.” But despite countless articles on her accomplishment, no sources seem to address the obvious question. What is the additional country she and Guinness are counting that isn’t a UN member? Nobody knows. Despite all this confusion, when someone learns I’ve been to 79 countries on my way to 100, they inevitably ask, “how many countries exist?”. And my answer is always the same. “There are 193 countries, and 195 UN members including Vatican City and Palestine, not all of which are countries, per se.”
The smallest country
To answer your other question, the smallest of those countries is Monaco which only contains 0.77 square miles (2.08 square km) of land and a negligible amount of the Mediterranean Sea. By comparison, Monaco is only 9.5% the size of the second smallest country of Nauru, a tiny Pacific Island nation. So Monaco is the smallest country by a significant margin! It’s also 0.00001% of Russia’s size, the world’s largest country. Hence, 85,736 Monacos fit into Russia.
(Monaco)
Vatican City is even smaller at 0.19 square miles (0.49 square km), only 25% of Monaco’s size by comparison. But again, Vatican City is not recognized as an official member of the United Nations and isn’t technically a country by most acceptable standards.
No comments:
Post a Comment