How Many Countries?

How many different countries there are depends on who you ask but here are a few options I tend to go by.

193
The official list of U.N Member States is the traditional list of soverign nations on Earth. States are admitted to membership in the United Nations by decision of the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council. Membership changes every few years - in 1990 there were only 159 members and the latest addition is South Sudan in 2011. As of January 2014 there are 193.

324
The Travelers’ Century Club’s official list of countries and territories has a total of 324 as of July 2011. Although some are not actually countries in their own right, they have been included because they are removed from the parent country, either geographically, politically or ethnologically.
To give travelers a better chance to qualify for one of the most unusual clubs in the world, even the shortest visit is enough to satisfy the requirement of 'going there', even if only a port-of-call, or a plane fuel stop. The full list in alphabetical order is located here. There are some really odd classifications in this list - it counts Tasmania as a different 'country' from Australia, and Alaska and Hawaii as different from the USA.

193 to 324
I like to use a different method that includes more than just the UN Member states but less than the Travelers' Century Club, for a number of reasons.
Firstly Kosovo, Taiwan and the Vatican City are official countries but not UN members. Secondly, there are are dozens of territories, departments and colonies that are sometimes erroneously called "countries" but don't count because they're governed by other countries. Examples include Puerto Rico, Bermuda, Greenland, Palestine, Western Sahara, and even the components of the United Kingdom (such as Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and England). These are not fully independent countries, states, or nation-states but I like to count them since they satisfy one or more of my simple rules;
     1) they are geographically separated from their governing country or
     2) they have their own flag or
     3) they have their own currency or
     4) they have their own Olympic team

Using this rule of thumb places like Bermuda (British Overseas Territory) and Greenland (Autonomous Country within the Kingdom of Denmark) count as countries even though they are not in the UN list. Other places like Tasmania and Alaska are part of the Travelers' Century Club but not counted as separate countries - so too with the two variations they use for Turkey (in Europe and in Asia).

My Counts
As of March 2016, I've been to;

• 91 UN Countries,
• 122 Travelers' Century Club destinations,
• 114 Countries using my own counting method (which has been verified by Jeff Warner, Consulting Actuary)

The difference between 114 and 122 is that the Travelers's Century Club counts Alaska, the Hawaiian Islands, Siberian Russia (v. European Russia) and the Lesser Sunda Islands of Indonesia (Bali etc) as different 'countries' and I do not.


The difference between 91 and 114 is that these places aren't counted as different countries since they aren't members of the UN. I count them as different countries for the reasons mentioned above.

• Wales (only counting one as part of the UK)
• Hong Kong
• Vatican City
• Puerto Rico
• US Virgin Islands
• British Virgin Islands
• Martinique
• Guadeloupe
• French Guiana
• Curacao
• Aruba
• Bonaire
• Saba
• St Barths
• St Eustatius
• Sint Maarten
• St Martin
• Anguilla
• Cayman Islands
• Montserrat
• Turks & Caicos
• Bermuda
• San Andres