The short answer
195
193 UN member states, plus the two non-member observer states: the Holy See and Palestine.
That is the figure behind almost every «countries I have visited» counter, including this one. It is stable (the UN has had 193 members since South Sudan joined in 2011), and it is the number to use unless you have a specific reason to use another.
The reason the question gets asked at all is that four other numbers are also correct, depending on what you are counting. Here they are, with what each one is for.
| Count | Who says so | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| 193 | UN member states | Seats and votes in the General Assembly |
| 195 | UN members + 2 observers | States the UN recognises. The travel default |
| 197 | Common informal count | The above, plus Taiwan and Kosovo |
| 206 | International Olympic Committee | National Olympic Committees, which include territories |
| 211 | FIFA | Football associations; England and Scotland count separately |
| 249 | ISO 3166-1 | Codes for countries and dependent territories alike |
None of these is wrong. They are answers to different questions, and the disagreement between them is the whole subject of this article.
Where the disagreement lives
The eight or so places that decide the number
Almost every country on Earth is uncontroversial. The gap between 193 and 249 is made of a short list of specific cases.
The two observer states
The Holy See and Palestine hold permanent observer status at the UN. They can speak, they cannot vote. Counting them gives 195; not counting them gives 193. This single decision accounts for the most common disagreement you will meet.
Taiwan
Taiwan governs itself, issues passports, holds elections and prints its own currency. It is also not a UN member (the seat it once held was transferred in 1971), and most states maintain unofficial rather than formal relations. Whether it belongs in a count is a political question with no neutral answer, only a stated one.
Kosovo
Declared independence in 2008 and is recognised by roughly a hundred UN member states. The exact figure moves, because recognitions are occasionally withdrawn as well as granted. Not a UN member. Counts that include Taiwan and Kosovo land on 197.
The Cook Islands and Niue
Self-governing states in free association with New Zealand. They conduct their own foreign relations and sign their own treaties, and a number of states recognise them as sovereign, but they have chosen not to seek UN membership. They are the strongest case for a number above 197.
Dependent territories
Greenland, Puerto Rico, Bermuda, French Polynesia, the Falkland Islands and several dozen more. Nobody calls them sovereign states, and everybody who has been to one feels they should count for something. This is where the jump from 197 to 249 comes from: ISO 3166-1 gives each of them a code because a parcel has to be addressed to somewhere, not because it has taken a view on sovereignty.
For a travel counter
Which number to put on your own map
Three rules that keep a personal count honest and comparable.
Pick 195 and say so. It is the most widely understood figure and the one other people’s counts use, which is the whole point of a number you intend to compare.
Count territories separately, not inside the total. Greenland is a genuine journey and belongs in your log. It is not a country, and putting it in the numerator makes your percentage incomparable with everyone else’s and, past a certain point, greater than 100%.
Decide what «visited» means before you need to. An airport transit without leaving the terminal, a border town crossed for lunch, a cruise stop of four hours: every collector draws this line somewhere, and the only bad place to draw it is retrospectively, to make a particular trip count.
What GetMap does
195 countries to fill in, and the share of the world is calculated against exactly that. Nine territories (Greenland, Puerto Rico, Taiwan, Kosovo, Antarctica and four more) can be logged as well, because they are real trips, but they stay outside the percentage. A complete map reads 100%.
On the third rule, GetMap offers something most counters do not: a way to settle it with evidence rather than memory. A quest sits on a real place, and a photo taken within 200 m of it turns a claim into a check-in. There is a separate piece on what that can and cannot prove.
Questions