There are 195 countries in the world today. This total comprises 193 countries that are member states of the United Nations and 2 countries that are non-member observer states: the Holy See and the State of Palestine.
Not in the list
Not included in this total count of 195 countries are:
- Taiwan – the United Nations considers it represented by the People’s Republic of China
- The Cook Islands and Niue, both states in free association with New Zealand which are members of several UN specialized agencies and have been recognized “full treaty-making capacity”, but are neither member states nor non-member observer states.
- Dependencies (or dependent territories, dependent areas, dependencies) and Areas of Special Sovereignty (autonomous territories)
- Other countries recognized by the United Nations as not being self-governing
Where are they located?
Of the 195 countries in the world:
- 54 countries are in Africa
- 48 in Asia
- 44 in Europe
- 33 in Latin America and the Caribbean
- 14 in Oceania
- 2 in Northern America
Flags
- Flags of all 195 countries in the world
List of countries
Below is the full table of countries ranked by the most populous and showing current population, share of world population, and land area:
See also: List with both countries and dependencies together | Alphabetical list of countries (includes dependencies)
