The answer depends on what your definition is of a ‘country’.
Here are the most common answers. According to UN there are 195 Sovereign States or countries.
This is defined as place that has it’s own boarders and an independent government.
There are 193 official UN members with just 2 countries, Vatican City and Palestine classified as UN Observer States.
If counting all nations with partial recognition, then there are 201 in total.
Taiwan, Western Sahara, Kosovo, South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Northern Cyrus identify as independent but are claimed as part of another country.
Alongside those countries partially recognised, there are three more ’self-declared’ countries that the UN does not recognise but who still run independently.
Self identifying themselves, Nagorno-Karabakh, Transnistria and Somaliland are referred to as De Facto Sovereign States bringing the total up to 204.
As the Islamic State has lost most of their government and territory in Syria and Iraq that are often discredited as independent.
The same applies to Donetsk People’s Republic and Lugansk People’s Republic which claim independence from Ukraine.
For the Olympic fans, numbers rise again to 206. This is because the Olympic body don’t require applicants to be from independent countries.
Fifa are even more generous than the Olympics with 211 registered countries. They too do not require independence or international recognition.
Fifa allows England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland to compete as separate teams, even though they’re all part of the UK.
Finally there are the countries included in the ISO Standard List.
This is the long list of countries included in the ’standard code’ – formally know as ISO 3166-1.
This is predominantly used by companies and organisations. It includes all the UN qualified nations but also takes into consideration territories and boarders.
