Where We've Been | Travel On The Dollar

How many countries are there in the world?

According to United Nations (UN), there are 195 countries in the world

193 countries are member states;
2 countries are non-member observer states: the Holy See (Vatican City) and the State of Palestine.

Apart from those 195, there are:

Disputed countries – Kosovo, Taiwan, Western Sahara, Transnistria, Artsakh, Abhkazia, South Ossetia, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, etc.
Dependent territories – Puerto Rico, Greenland, Svalbard, Aruba, Cook Islands, etc.
Special status territories – Hong Kong and Macau.

For the purpose of this list, we are including the disputed countries as a part of the visited-list below.

Why include disputed countries? Because most of these countries have their own border controls and governments, some of them have their own currencies too. So depending on whom you ask, these can be included in the list of ‘countries’.