There are 195 countries in the world in 2026: the 193 member states of the United Nations plus its two permanent observer states, the Holy See (Vatican City) and Palestine. By continent, that is 54 in Africa, 48 in Asia, 44 in Europe, 23 in North America, 14 in Oceania and 12 in South America. All 195 are listed below, alphabetically within each continent. Taiwan, Kosovo and the other partly recognised states are not included, for reasons explained further down.
Where the Continent Lines Fall
The totals by continent depend on where you put a dozen countries that straddle a boundary, which is why other lists give Asia 44 to 49 countries and Europe anywhere from 44 to 51. This list follows the most common convention. Russia is counted once, in Europe, although three-quarters of its territory is in Asia. Turkey, Cyprus, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan are in Asia. Egypt is in Africa, despite the Sinai Peninsula. Panama and every Caribbean island state are in North America, and Oceania includes Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. Change any of these and the continent totals move, but the total of 195 stays the same.
Africa (54 Countries)
- Algeria
- Angola
- Benin
- Botswana
- Burkina Faso
- Burundi
- Cabo Verde
- Cameroon
- Central African Republic
- Chad
- Comoros
- Côte d’Ivoire
- Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Djibouti
- Egypt
- Equatorial Guinea
- Eritrea
- Eswatini
- Ethiopia
- Gabon
- Gambia
- Ghana
- Guinea
- Guinea-Bissau
- Kenya
- Lesotho
- Liberia
- Libya
- Madagascar
- Malawi
- Mali
- Mauritania
- Mauritius
- Morocco
- Mozambique
- Namibia
- Niger
- Nigeria
- Republic of the Congo
- Rwanda
- São Tomé and Príncipe
- Senegal
- Seychelles
- Sierra Leone
- Somalia
- South Africa
- South Sudan
- Sudan
- Tanzania
- Togo
- Tunisia
- Uganda
- Zambia
- Zimbabwe
Africa has more countries than any other continent. South Sudan, independent since July 2011, is the newest country in the world, and Eswatini is the most recent African country to change its name, dropping "Swaziland" in 2018.
Asia (48 Countries)
- Afghanistan
- Armenia
- Azerbaijan
- Bahrain
- Bangladesh
- Bhutan
- Brunei
- Cambodia
- China
- Cyprus
- Georgia
- India
- Indonesia
- Iran
- Iraq
- Israel
- Japan
- Jordan
- Kazakhstan
- Kuwait
- Kyrgyzstan
- Laos
- Lebanon
- Malaysia
- Maldives
- Mongolia
- Myanmar
- Nepal
- North Korea
- Oman
- Pakistan
- Palestine
- Philippines
- Qatar
- Saudi Arabia
- Singapore
- South Korea
- Sri Lanka
- Syria
- Tajikistan
- Thailand
- Timor-Leste
- Turkey
- Turkmenistan
- United Arab Emirates
- Uzbekistan
- Vietnam
- Yemen
Palestine is counted here as a UN observer state. Timor-Leste, admitted in 2002, is Asia's youngest member. Recognition is especially uneven in Asia, with Taiwan outside the count and Israel and Palestine each unrecognised by a number of UN members.
Europe (44 Countries)
- Albania
- Andorra
- Austria
- Belarus
- Belgium
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Bulgaria
- Croatia
- Czechia
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Holy See (Vatican City)
- Hungary
- Iceland
- Ireland
- Italy
- Latvia
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Malta
- Moldova
- Monaco
- Montenegro
- Netherlands
- North Macedonia
- Norway
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- Russia
- San Marino
- Serbia
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Ukraine
- United Kingdom
Vatican City is in this list as the Holy See, the second observer state. Kosovo is not. Its 2008 declaration of independence is recognised by roughly half of UN members, but that falls short of the Security Council approval it needs to join.
North America (23 Countries)
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Bahamas
- Barbados
- Belize
- Canada
- Costa Rica
- Cuba
- Dominica
- Dominican Republic
- El Salvador
- Grenada
- Guatemala
- Haiti
- Honduras
- Jamaica
- Mexico
- Nicaragua
- Panama
- Saint Kitts and Nevis
- Saint Lucia
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
- Trinidad and Tobago
- United States
Only three of the 23 are large mainland states. Thirteen are island states in the Caribbean and the neighbouring Atlantic, and seven sit on the Central American isthmus.
South America (12 Countries)
- Argentina
- Bolivia
- Brazil
- Chile
- Colombia
- Ecuador
- Guyana
- Paraguay
- Peru
- Suriname
- Uruguay
- Venezuela
French Guiana is not on this list. It is an overseas region of France, which makes it part of the European Union and gives France a land border with Brazil.
Oceania (14 Countries)
- Australia
- Fiji
- Kiribati
- Marshall Islands
- Micronesia (Federated States of)
- Nauru
- New Zealand
- Palau
- Papua New Guinea
- Samoa
- Solomon Islands
- Tonga
- Tuvalu
- Vanuatu
Twelve of the fourteen are Pacific island states, most of them independent only since the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Several, including the Cook Islands and Niue, are self-governing but linked to New Zealand and are not UN members.
Why 193 Plus Two
The number 195 comes from United Nations membership. No international body keeps an official register of countries, and UN membership is the nearest thing to one. To join, a state needs a recommendation from the Security Council and a two-thirds vote in the General Assembly, so any of the five permanent members can veto an application. That is why membership has stayed at 193 since South Sudan joined in 2011, even though several independence claims are still active.
The two observers are included because they are sovereign states that are not full members. The Holy See has chosen observer status since 1964, and could in principle apply for membership. Palestine became a non-member observer state by General Assembly vote in November 2012, and is now recognised by more than three-quarters of UN members, including the United Kingdom, France, Canada and Australia since September 2025. The ISO 3166 list of country codes runs to 249 entries, but it covers dependent territories as well, so it isn't a count of countries.
Taiwan, Kosovo and the Others Left Off
Several places work as countries without appearing among the 195, each for a different reason. Taiwan has its own government, army, currency and passport, and held China's UN seat until Resolution 2758 gave it to Beijing in 1971. Today only about a dozen states recognise it formally. Kosovo is blocked by Security Council opposition, mainly from Russia and China. Western Sahara is listed by the UN as a non-self-governing territory. The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic that claims it is a full member of the African Union but not of the UN.
The rest have even less recognition. Northern Cyprus is recognised only by Turkey, and Abkhazia and South Ossetia by Russia and a handful of others. Somaliland has run its own elections and currency since 1991 and is recognised by almost no other state. Our guide to unrecognised states and their borders covers most of them in detail.
From 51 Members in 1945
The UN had 51 founding members. Almost all of the growth since then came in three waves. Decolonisation was the largest: 17 states joined in 1960 alone, 16 of them African, and membership had more than doubled by 1970.
The second wave followed the break-up of the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. Russia took over the Soviet seat in December 1991. Ukraine and Belarus needed no new admission, because both had been founding members in 1945 under a deal made at Yalta. The three Baltic states joined in September 1991, and the other nine former Soviet republics in 1992. Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina were admitted in 1992, Czechia and Slovakia in January 1993, and North Macedonia three months later.
Later additions came in ones and twos, among them Eritrea in 1993, Palau in 1994, Serbia (then the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) and Tuvalu in 2000, Switzerland and Timor-Leste in 2002, Montenegro in 2006 and South Sudan in 2011. Switzerland was not a new state. It had stayed out for 57 years to protect its neutrality, until a referendum in March 2002 approved joining.
Territories That Look Like Countries
Many inhabited places are often assumed to be countries but are not. Puerto Rico and Guam are United States territories. Greenland and the Faroe Islands are self-governing parts of the Kingdom of Denmark. Bermuda, Gibraltar and the Cayman Islands are British Overseas Territories, and Hong Kong and Macau are special administrative regions of China, with their own currencies and border controls.
Sport adds to the confusion. The International Olympic Committee recognises 206 national committees and FIFA has 211 member associations, and both include territories the UN does not count. England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland play as separate football teams, but on this list they appear once, as the United Kingdom.
The Smallest Members
Five of the 195 are smaller than 100 square kilometres: Vatican City at 0.44 km², Monaco, Nauru, Tuvalu and San Marino. Each has the same single vote in the General Assembly as India or the United States. Their economies are unusual. Monaco lives on banking, tourism and wealthy residents. Nauru mined out its phosphate by the 1990s. Tuvalu earns a large share of government revenue from its .tv internet domain. Tuvalu and Kiribati are also among the countries most exposed to sea-level rise, with average heights of only a few metres. The full ranking is in our list of the smallest countries in the world.
Records at Either End
Russia is the largest country at 17.1 million km², roughly 39 million times the area of Vatican City. India became the most populous country in 2023, when it overtook China. It now has more than 1.4 billion people, while Vatican City has around 800. Forty-four countries have no coastline. Liechtenstein and Uzbekistan are doubly landlocked, meaning every one of their neighbours is landlocked too. Three countries are completely surrounded by a single other state: Lesotho by South Africa, and San Marino and Vatican City by Italy. At the other extreme, Indonesia has more than 17,000 islands.
If you need capitals rather than countries, our guide to world capitals covers them, including the countries that split the job between cities, such as South Africa and Bolivia.