List of sovereign states

This list of sovereign states provides an overview of sovereign states around the world, with information on their status and recognition of their sovereignty.

Membership within the United Nations system divides the 206 listed states into three categories: 193 member states, two observer states, and 11 other states. The sovereignty dispute column indicates states whose sovereignty is undisputed (190 states) and states whose sovereignty is disputed (16 states).

Compiling a list such as this can be a difficult and controversial process, as there is no definition that is binding on all the members of the community of nations concerning the criteria for statehood. For more information on the criteria used to determine the contents of this list, please see the criteria for inclusion section below. The list is intended to include entities that have been recognized to have de facto status as sovereign states, and inclusion should not be seen as an endorsement of any specific claim to statehood in legal terms.

List of states

Criteria for inclusion

The dominant customary international law standard of statehood is the declarative theory of statehood that defines the state as a person of international law if it "possess[es] the following qualifications: (a) a permanent population; (b) a defined territory; (c) government; and (d) a capacity to enter into relations with the other states" so long as it was not "obtained by force whether this consists in the employment of arms, in threatening diplomatic representations, or in any other effective coercive measure".

Debate exists on the degree to which recognition should be included as a criterion of statehood. The declarative theory of statehood, an example of which can be found in the Montevideo Convention, argues that statehood is purely objective and recognition of a state by other states is irrelevant. On the other end of the spectrum, the constitutive theory of statehood defines a state as a person under international law only if it is recognised as sovereign by other states. For the purposes of this list, included are all states that either:

• (a) consider themselves sovereign (through a declaration of independence or some other means) and are often regarded as satisfying the declarative theory of statehood, or
• (b) are recognised as a sovereign state by at least one UN member state

Note that in some cases, there is a divergence of opinion over the interpretation of the first point, and whether an entity satisfies it is disputed.

On the basis of the above criteria, this list includes the following 206 entities:

• 203 states recognised by at least one UN member state
• Two states that satisfy the declarative theory of statehood and are recognised only by non-UN member states: Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, Transnistria
• One state that satisfies the declarative theory of statehood and is not recognised by any other state: Somaliland

See also

Notes

References

Bibliography

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