List of sovereign states

The following is a list providing an overview of sovereign states around the world with information on their status and recognition of their sovereignty.

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The 205 listed states can be divided into three categories based on membership within the United Nations System: 193 UN member states,^[1] two UN General Assembly non-member observer states, and ten other states. The sovereignty dispute column indicates states having undisputed sovereignty (188 states, of which there are 187 UN member states and one UN General Assembly non-member observer state), states having disputed sovereignty (15 states, of which there are six UN member states, one UN General Assembly non-member observer state, and eight de facto states), and states having a special political status (two states, both in free association with New Zealand).

Compiling a list such as this can be complicated and controversial, 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 recognised as having de facto status as sovereign states, and inclusion should not be seen as an endorsement of any specific claim to statehood in legal terms.

The dominant customary international law standard of statehood is the declarative theory of statehood, which was codified by the Montevideo Convention of 1933. The Convention 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".^[2]

Debate exists on the degree to which recognition should be included as a criterion of statehood. The declarative theory of statehood 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 polities that consider themselves sovereign states (through a declaration of independence or some other means) and either:

• are often regarded as satisfying the declarative theory of statehood, or
• are recognised as a sovereign state by at least one UN member state

In some cases, there is a divergence of opinion over the interpretation of the first point, and whether an entity satisfies it is disputed. Unique political entities which fail to meet the classification of a sovereign state are considered proto-states.^[3][4]

On the basis of the above criteria, this list includes the following 205 entities:^[a][b]

• 203 states recognised by at least one UN member state
• One state that satisfies the declarative theory of statehood and is recognised only by non-UN member states
• One state that satisfies the declarative theory of statehood and is not recognised by any other state

The table includes bullets in the right-hand column representing entities that are either not sovereign states or have a close association to another sovereign state. It also includes subnational areas where the sovereignty of the titular state is limited by an international agreement. Taken together, these include:

• Entities that are in a free association relationship with another state
• Two entities controlled by Pakistan which are neither sovereign states, dependent territories, nor part of another state: Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan
• Dependent territories of another state, as well as areas that exhibit many characteristics of dependent territories according to the dependent territory page
• Subnational entities created by international agreements