When we studied Geography in school we learnt a lot about various continents and Oceans. Thereafter, we stopped understanding geography as we did not have much use of it, just like many of us have forgotten the postulates in Mathematics or the Chemical Elements or the laws of Physics.
One need to apply to our daily lives any knowledge that we wish to learn, study, or understand. With our conscious choice of Import Export Business, we are once again into the Geography of the world.
There is no way but to know these countries. Roughly we all know the Continents and the Oceans, but hardly any one of us can answer to how many countries can I from India. This question – How many countries are in the world? Very tricky & confusing question, this is. This question, surprisingly, does not have a single answer.
Yes, you got me right. No singular number, no unanimous answer, no consensus on the number.
Nonetheless, I know there are Continents and each continents are certain number of countries. I know to how many countries India is exporting and from how many countries India is importing. Still there is no one figure about the number of countries the World has.
Look at the below chart. This chart will tell you how each of our world’s biggest organization differ in their answer to our simple question – how many countries are in this world?
Some facts on why there is no singular answer on the countries in the world:
1.There are 195 Sovereign States in the World.
2. The United National does not recognize or has kept under observation countries like Palestine, Kosovo or Vatican.
3. The nation that is a country and not a country – a Nation that exists but not counted – Taiwan.
4. United Kingdom has other 4 countries within one single country – U.K. has England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales as its Countries
5. There are 31 countries which do not have their own National Defense system. They depend up on a larger country nearby.
6. The British, French, Portuguese etc rules over some countries hundreds of years ago. But there are a few islands, territories or a part which are still governed by them. These are called Dependent Territories or Free Associations like Macau and Hong Kong or a Dependent Country.
7. Commonly confusing countries which are not counted as countries are Puerto Rico, Bermuda, Greenland, Palestine, and Western Sahara.
8. Caribbean Islands and West Indies are only a group of islands in a particular Sea and not Countries, this is once again a common doubt while counting the countries.
Am sure you are still confused. To simplify, the safest of count is 196 countries. Why?
If one counts U.S. State Department's list of recognized nations & include Taiwan, it counts to 196 countries. You shall derive the same number if you count the UN voting members (193), its two permanent observers, and Taiwan = 196. This is why 196 is probably the best current answer to the question.
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