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The following is a list providing an overview of
sovereign state A sovereign state or sovereign country, is a political entity represented by one central government that has supreme legitimate authority over territory. International law defines sovereign states as having a permanent population, defined te ...
s around the world with information on their status and recognition of their
sovereignty Sovereignty is the defining authority within individual consciousness, social construct, or territory. Sovereignty entails hierarchy within the state, as well as external autonomy for states. In any state, sovereignty is assigned to the perso ...
. The 206 listed states can be divided into three categories based on membership within the
United Nations System The United Nations System consists of the United Nations' six principal organs (the General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), Trusteeship Council, International Court of Justice (ICJ), and the UN Secretariat) ...
: 193 UN member states, 2 UN General Assembly non-member observer states, and 11 other states. The ''sovereignty dispute'' column indicates states having undisputed sovereignty (188 states, of which there are 187 UN member states and 1 UN General Assembly non-member observer state), states having disputed sovereignty (16 states, of which there are 6 UN member states, 1 UN General Assembly non-member observer state, and 9 de facto states), and states having a special political status (2 states, both in free association with
New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
). Compiling a list such as this can be a complicated and controversial process, as there is no definition that is binding on all the members of the community of nations concerning the criteria for statehood. For more information on the criteria used to determine the contents of this list, please see the '' criteria for inclusion'' section below. The list is intended to include entities that have been recognised as having
de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...
status as sovereign states, and inclusion should not be seen as an endorsement of any specific claim to statehood in legal terms.


Criteria for inclusion

The dominant
customary international law Customary international law is an aspect of international law involving the principle of custom. Along with general principles of law and treaties, custom is considered by the International Court of Justice, jurists, the United Nations, and its ...
standard of statehood is the
declarative theory of statehood A sovereign state or sovereign country, is a political entity represented by one central government that has supreme legitimate authority over territory. International law defines sovereign states as having a permanent population, defined terr ...
, which was codified by the
Montevideo Convention The Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States is a treaty signed at Montevideo, Uruguay, on December 26, 1933, during the Seventh International Conference of American States. The Convention codifies the declarative theory of state ...
of 1933. The Convention defines the state as a
person A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of prope ...
of international law if it ''"possess sthe following qualifications: (a) a permanent population; (b) a defined territory; (c) government; and (d) a capacity to enter into relations with the other states"'' so long as it was not ''"obtained by force whether this consists in the employment of arms, in threatening diplomatic representations, or in any other effective coercive measure"''. Debate exists on the degree to which
recognition Recognition may refer to: *Award, something given in recognition of an achievement Machine learning *Pattern recognition, a branch of machine learning which encompasses the meanings below Biometric * Recognition of human individuals, or biomet ...
should be included as a criterion of statehood. The declarative theory of statehood argues that statehood is purely objective and recognition of a state by other states is irrelevant. On the other end of the spectrum, the
constitutive theory of statehood Constitutive may refer to: * In physics, a constitutive equation is a relation between two physical quantities * In ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical envir ...
defines a state as a person under international law only if it is recognised as sovereign by other states. For the purposes of this list, included are all polities that consider themselves sovereign states (through a
declaration of independence A declaration of independence or declaration of statehood or proclamation of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of th ...
or some other means) and either: * are often regarded as satisfying the declarative theory of statehood, ''or'' * are recognised as a sovereign state by at least one UN member state Note that in some cases, there is a divergence of opinion over the interpretation of the first point, and whether an entity satisfies it is disputed. Unique political entities which fail to meet the classification of a sovereign state are considered
proto-states A quasi-state (some times referred to as state-like entity or proto-state) is a political entity that does not represent a fully institutionalised or autonomous sovereign state. The precise definition of ''quasi-state'' in political literature f ...
. On the basis of the above criteria, this list includes the following 206 entities:The following bullets are grouped according to the availability of sources for the two criteria ((a) and/or (b)). This arrangement is not intended to reflect the relative importance of the two theories. Additional details are discussed in the state's individual entries. * 203 states recognised by at least one UN member state * 2 states that satisfy the declarative theory of statehood and are recognised only by non-UN member states * 1 state that satisfies the declarative theory of statehood and is not recognised by any other state The table includes bullets in the right-hand column representing entities that are either not sovereign states or have a close association to another sovereign state. It also includes subnational areas where the sovereignty of the titular state is limited by an international agreement. Taken together, these include: * Entities that are in a free association relationship with another state * 2 entities controlled by Pakistan which are neither sovereign states, dependent territories, nor part of another state: Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan * Dependent territories of another state, as well as areas that exhibit many characteristics of dependent territories according to the dependent territory page * Subnational entities created by international agreements


List of states

"Membership within the UN System" column legend "Sovereignty dispute" column legend


See also

*
Armorial of sovereign states This armorial of sovereign states shows the coat of arms, national emblem, or seal for every sovereign state. Although some countries do not have an official national emblem, unofficial emblems which are ''de facto'' used as national emblems are ...
*
Gallery of sovereign state flags This gallery of sovereign state flags shows the national or state flags of sovereign states that appear on the list of sovereign states. For other flags, please see flags of active autonomist and secessionist movements, flags of extinct states a ...
*
ISO 3166-1 ISO 3166-1 (''Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions – Part 1: Country codes'') is a standard defining codes for the names of countries, dependent territories, and special areas of geographical interest. It ...
* List of adjectival and demonymic forms for countries and nations *
List of administrative divisions by country The table below indicates the types and, where known, numbers of administrative divisions used by countries and their major dependent territories. It is ordered alphabetically by country name in English. Administrative divisions by country Mem ...
* List of associated states * List of condominiums *
List of countries and dependencies and their capitals in native languages The following chart lists countries and dependencies along with their capital cities, in English as well as any additional official language(s). * In bold: Internationally recognized sovereign states ** The 193 member states of the United Natio ...
*
List of countries and dependencies by area This is a list of the world's countries and their dependent territories by land, water and total area, ranked by total area. Entries in this list include, but are not limited to, those in the ISO 3166-1 standard, which includes sovereign ...
*
List of countries and dependencies by population This is a list of countries and dependencies by population. It includes sovereign states, inhabited dependent territories and, in some cases, constituent countries of sovereign states, with inclusion within the list being primarily based on the ...
*
List of countries by United Nations geoscheme This is a list of countries by the United Nations geoscheme, including 193 UN member states, 2 UN observer states (the Holy See and Palestine), 2 states in free association with New Zealand (the Cook Islands and Niue), and 50 non-sovereign d ...
*
List of country-name etymologies This list covers English-language country names with their etymologies. Some of these include notes on indigenous names and their etymologies. Countries in ''italics'' are endonyms or no longer exist as sovereign political entities. A Afghan ...
*
List of dependent territories A dependent territory, dependent area, or dependency (sometimes referred as an external territory) is a territory that does not possess full political independence or sovereignty as a sovereign state, yet remains politically outside the controlli ...
*
List of international rankings This is a list of international rankings. By category Agriculture * List of largest producing countries of agricultural commodities *List of countries by apple production * List of countries by apricot production * List of countries by artichoke ...
*
List of ISO 3166 country codes The International Organization for Standardization (International Organization for Standardization, ISO) created and maintains the ISO 3166, ISO 3166 standard – ''Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions''. The I ...
*
List of micronations Micronations, sometimes also referred to as ''model countries'' and ''new country projects'', are small, self-proclaimed entities that claim to be independent sovereign states but which are not acknowledged as such by any recognised sovereign st ...
*
List of national capitals This is a list of national capitals, including capitals of territories and dependencies, non-sovereign states including associated states and entities whose sovereignty is disputed. The capitals included on this list are those associated with ...
*
List of rebel groups that control territory This is a list of active rebel groups that control territory around the world whose domains may be subnational, transnational, or international. A " rebel group" is defined here as a polity that uses armed conflict in opposition to established ...
*
List of states with limited recognition A number of polities have declared independence and sought diplomatic recognition from the international community as sovereign states, but have not been universally recognised as such. These entities often have ''de facto'' control of thei ...
*
List of territorial disputes Territorial disputes have occurred throughout history, over lands around the world. Bold indicates one claimant's full control; ''italics'' indicates one or more claimants' partial control. Ongoing disputes between UN member/observer states ...
*
List of territories governed by the United Nations This is a list of territories which are directly administered, or once were, by the United Nations (UN). These are not to be confused with UN trust territories, which were run by a single country under a UN mandate. List Current Former Se ...
* Lists of political entities by century *
Lists of state leaders by century This is a list of heads of state, government leaders, and other rulers in any given century. 3rd millennium :'' List of state leaders in the 21st century'' :: Current state leaders ::: '22 – '21 – '20 – '19 – '18 – '17 – '16 â ...
*
Member states of the United Nations The United Nations member states are the sovereign states that are members of the United Nations (UN) and have equal representation in the UN General Assembly. The UN is the world's largest intergovernmental organization. The criteria ...
*
Sovereign state A sovereign state or sovereign country, is a polity, political entity represented by one central government that has supreme legitimate authority over territory. International law defines sovereign states as having a permanent population, defin ...
**
List of former sovereign states A historical sovereign state is a Sovereign state, state that once existed, but has since been dissolved due to conflict, war, rebellion, annexation, or uprising. This page lists sovereign states, country, countries, nations, or empires that have c ...
**
List of sovereign states and dependent territories by continent This is a list of sovereign states and dependent territories of the world by continent, displayed with their respective national flags, including the following entities: * By association within the UN system: ** The 193 United Nations member state ...
** List of sovereign states by date of formation * Template:Clickable world map *
Terra nullius ''Terra nullius'' (, plural ''terrae nullius'') is a Latin expression meaning " nobody's land". It was a principle sometimes used in international law to justify claims that territory may be acquired by a state's occupation of it. : : ...
*
United Nations list of non-self-governing territories Chapter XI of the United Nations Charter defines a non-self-governing territory (NSGT) as a territory "whose people have not yet attained a full measure of self-government". In practice, an NSGT is a territory deemed by the United Nations Gene ...


Notes


References


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:sovereign states, List of *Sovereign states Eurasia Africa Americas Oceania Countries