How Many Countries are in the World?

A question often debated amongst travelers is “how many countries are there in the world?”

Many people have different answers to this question and I personally follow two different lists of countries:

1. The UN+3 list; and

2. The Travelers’ Century Club or TCC list (http://travelerscenturyclub.org).

The TCC uses a set of geographical, political, and ethnological criteria to determine whether a territory should be considered as a separate country or not. The TCC list of ‘countries’ opened my eyes to a number of unique and interesting places in our wonderful world. As silly as it may be, the fact these quasi-countries were on the TCC list encouraged me to visit them.

I am not a person who travels to tick off a list or will ever say that I have “done” a country. I would LOVE to visit all of the places on the TCC list, but I’ll do it on my own time and make the journey for the experience, not just to say that I have been there.

Many of the countries included in the TCC list are extremely difficult to get to and/or have a difficult and/or expensive visa process so making the experience needs to be worth the challenge!

Among TCC travelers there is often debate about what constitutes a proper visit to a TCC country and what does not but, as far as I am concerned, the TCC list is not a competition. Rather, it’s a great way to motivate and inspire travelers to visit and explore less popular destinations and learn about the geography, history, or political events that have led to it becoming a quasi-country in the first place.

Baldpacker has travelled to 169 of 329 TCC Countries.