How many Countries are there in the World?
Posted: July 7, 2024
The debate as to how many countries are there in the world, what constitutes a country or territory goes on and so does the criteria for saying you've been there.
My travels will not be dictated by lists such as the United Nations Member States list or the one by the FCO, the TCC or even NomadMania.
The numbers are a fool's game. If you travel to Moscow, you can theoretically say you have been to Russia. If you have a 10-hour layover in Dakar, where you leave the airport, take an Uber downtown and have a beer (or do something significant) you can check off Senegal.
What counts as having done/seen something significant? Is one beer or a coffee enough? Is filling up with a tank of gas enough? or a combination of things?
You go to a bar, you order a beer (communicating with the bar worker in the process), you drink that beer, you pay for that beer and then go and use the washroom. Quite a few notable things no? I make it 6.
So where do you draw the line? It's just impossible.
How long is enough to qualify for you to have 'visited' somewhere? 5 minutes, 10 hours, 24 hours, a week, a month, a lifetime?
For sure, I have visited 110 UN-listed Member states. My qualifying criteria was that I must spend at least 24 hours. It used to be just to have slept there but as my buddy Jonny Blair pointed out, he could have backpacked Colombo on an 8-hour night layover and seen a whole lot more than me whilst I slept all night.
Yes, I know how many countries and territories according to the FCO and the TCC I have been to. It's out of pure curiosity.
Soon I am going to Malta (I am here now). I am excited by the fact that I am going to a new place. The number is just a by-product.
I am not chasing the 193. It just doesn't interest me. Give me quality over quantity. And countries like Nigeria, DRC, Venezuela, Haiti, Qatar, I have no interest in going to these places. If clicking off the 193 was the goal, I could have travelled to 160 or more by now but I have been multiple times to many places: Thailand, 10 times, Malaysia 10 times, Morocco 4 times, Australia 3 times.
And going beyond the magical 193, the criteria for what constitutes a country or territory is just never-ending.
Hong Kong is not on the UN list, politically it's under China, yet they have their own money, their passport, their licence plates, their own identity and culture.
At the other end of the scale, Transnistria. It's recognised by only Abkhazia and South Ossetia yet they issue their own passports and have their own currency and when I went, I was given a migration form at the border.
That makes it a country right? Or is it just a territory, a de facto independent presidential republic with its own government, parliament, military, police, postal system, currency, and vehicle registration?
It's also called by some, the country that does not exist, by the same crowd that claims they went to Afghanistan when they only went to the Afghan border market in Ishkashim, Tajikistan.
Sure, to visit the market, you need to leave your passport with the Tajikistan guards, but you do not get stamped out of Tajikistan, you do not get stamped into Afghanistan, you are still on the Tajik side of the river. You did NOT go to Afghanistan.
And what would you do with Indonesia? There are over 17,000 islands. I have been to 7 of them: Sumatra, Java, Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, Komodo, and Flores but can I say I have seen Indonesia?
And if you go to Socotra, can you say you've been to Yemen or Somaliland and say you've been to Somalia? Technically yes, but otherwise, I don't think you can.
Which is why numbering countries and territories is futile.
Better to make an unnumbered list.
So it's all down to gloating and bragging rights. Which is fair enough. Gloat away.
I know what I have done, I know where I have been and what significant milestones I have achieved. I am not in competition with you, only myself.
It is like everything has become a race.
Every country in the world before the age of 30. Or every country in the world without flying when the only criteria was to step foot in each country literally. 5 countries in one day, you could do more, I am sure with some decent planning.
When the idea of travel is to see and experience stuff, what have you seen or experienced by spending 10 minutes in one place?
My buddy Phil has been to all of the UN 193 and those that make up 197, and quite a few unrecognised regions. It took him more than 50 years to see. Who's seen/experienced more? Him or the one doing 197 before 20 years old?
If the goal is to do the 193 before you are 20, good luck to you. I'm not gonna be impressed. You are not a traveller. You are just another person chasing a false set of numbers.
If you tell me you spent a month walking across the Sahel, then you have my attention.
Noticeable achievements for me include:
Overland journeys:
Other moments I am super proud of:
The numbers are a fool's game. If you travel to Moscow, you can theoretically say you have been to Russia. If you have a 10-hour layover in Dakar, where you leave the airport, take an Uber downtown and have a beer (or do something significant) you can check off Senegal.
What counts as having done/seen something significant? Is one beer or a coffee enough? Is filling up with a tank of gas enough? or a combination of things?
You go to a bar, you order a beer (communicating with the bar worker in the process), you drink that beer, you pay for that beer and then go and use the washroom. Quite a few notable things no? I make it 6.
So where do you draw the line? It's just impossible.
How long is enough to qualify for you to have 'visited' somewhere? 5 minutes, 10 hours, 24 hours, a week, a month, a lifetime?
For sure, I have visited 110 UN-listed Member states. My qualifying criteria was that I must spend at least 24 hours. It used to be just to have slept there but as my buddy Jonny Blair pointed out, he could have backpacked Colombo on an 8-hour night layover and seen a whole lot more than me whilst I slept all night.
Yes, I know how many countries and territories according to the FCO and the TCC I have been to. It's out of pure curiosity.
Soon I am going to Malta (I am here now). I am excited by the fact that I am going to a new place. The number is just a by-product.
I am not chasing the 193. It just doesn't interest me. Give me quality over quantity. And countries like Nigeria, DRC, Venezuela, Haiti, Qatar, I have no interest in going to these places. If clicking off the 193 was the goal, I could have travelled to 160 or more by now but I have been multiple times to many places: Thailand, 10 times, Malaysia 10 times, Morocco 4 times, Australia 3 times.
And going beyond the magical 193, the criteria for what constitutes a country or territory is just never-ending.
Hong Kong is not on the UN list, politically it's under China, yet they have their own money, their passport, their licence plates, their own identity and culture.
At the other end of the scale, Transnistria. It's recognised by only Abkhazia and South Ossetia yet they issue their own passports and have their own currency and when I went, I was given a migration form at the border.
That makes it a country right? Or is it just a territory, a de facto independent presidential republic with its own government, parliament, military, police, postal system, currency, and vehicle registration?
It's also called by some, the country that does not exist, by the same crowd that claims they went to Afghanistan when they only went to the Afghan border market in Ishkashim, Tajikistan.
Sure, to visit the market, you need to leave your passport with the Tajikistan guards, but you do not get stamped out of Tajikistan, you do not get stamped into Afghanistan, you are still on the Tajik side of the river. You did NOT go to Afghanistan.
And what would you do with Indonesia? There are over 17,000 islands. I have been to 7 of them: Sumatra, Java, Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, Komodo, and Flores but can I say I have seen Indonesia?
And if you go to Socotra, can you say you've been to Yemen or Somaliland and say you've been to Somalia? Technically yes, but otherwise, I don't think you can.
Which is why numbering countries and territories is futile.
Better to make an unnumbered list.
So it's all down to gloating and bragging rights. Which is fair enough. Gloat away.
I know what I have done, I know where I have been and what significant milestones I have achieved. I am not in competition with you, only myself.
It is like everything has become a race.
Every country in the world before the age of 30. Or every country in the world without flying when the only criteria was to step foot in each country literally. 5 countries in one day, you could do more, I am sure with some decent planning.
When the idea of travel is to see and experience stuff, what have you seen or experienced by spending 10 minutes in one place?
My buddy Phil has been to all of the UN 193 and those that make up 197, and quite a few unrecognised regions. It took him more than 50 years to see. Who's seen/experienced more? Him or the one doing 197 before 20 years old?
If the goal is to do the 193 before you are 20, good luck to you. I'm not gonna be impressed. You are not a traveller. You are just another person chasing a false set of numbers.
If you tell me you spent a month walking across the Sahel, then you have my attention.
Noticeable achievements for me include:
- Walking from Lands End to John O'Groats 1071 miles.
- Going down the east coast of Madagascar in a cargo boat
- Trans Siberian Express
Overland journeys:
- Cairo to Cape Town
- London to Korea
- Hong Kong to the Aral Sea
- Singapore to Islamabad
- Panama City to Mexico City
- London to Beirut
- Nairobi to Katima Mulilo
Other moments I am super proud of:
- Crossing from Senegal to Mali on foot.
- Taking the boat from Aswan to Wadi Halfa
- China to Pakistan on the Karakoram Highway
Collecting fridge magnets, this one is from Ceuta, a Spanish Autonomous City in Africa:
Crossing from China to Pakistan over the Khunjerab Pass, back in 2011 was as classic as it gets. It's about experiences, not about collecting countries:
