How many countries have you been to?  A common question among travellers and one that friends and I have amicably argued about for several years. But before you begin counting there are 2 questions that need to be settles: 1) What defines a place as being a country? and 2) What counts as ‘visiting’ a country?

The first question tends to fire up the most intense debates.  There are many ‘country’ lists out there and many different definitions.

The UN List of Member Countries: For some it’s the U.N list of countries, however, this fails to recognise some states, such as Palestine or Tibet as countries and others that might consider themselves as separate entities are grouped together. England, Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland come together as the United Kingdom. Ask a Scot about his nationality and they will tell you ‘Scottish’ rather than British and clearly not associated with the English.

From left to right the flags of England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland

Political Borders: For others, recognisable land or sea borders constitute a country.  If you have to present your passport then surely you are entering a new country? However, that excludes the countries of the UK (no passport control between England & Wales for example), whilst upsetting the Chinese, because although you need a passport and (for some) a visa to travel between Hong Kong and China, they are officially One Country. And that doesn’t even begin to get into the very touchy subject of Taiwan.  Other indicators might be different parliaments, different currencies which also can be considered part of the political debate.

Map showing Hong Kong (which has a separate parliament and currency) and the clear border separating it from China.

Sports: One possible system as suggested by A. was “Can this place field an internationally recognised individual sports team?”  If it can be recognised that way, then the individual countries of the UK, Hong Kong and even Taiwan (under the name “Chinese Taipei”) compete as separate entities.  This does, however, leave nations such as The Vatican City in the cold. Though I’m sure the Swiss guards could organise themselves into a pretty mean football team if needed.

Separate from the Mother Country: The Travellers Century Club counts as separate places that are removed politically, geographically or ethnically from the ‘motherland’.  In this way places that are considered Territories rather than countries get a look in.  This means that Greenland is a separate from Denmark, Tibet from China as are Alaska and Hawaii from the rest of the US. Debatable and sensitive? Definitely. But then you can count more countries, and, more importantly as a traveller, it encourages you to see all the different parts that a nation has to offer, thus giving you a deeper cultural experience and understanding – bonus!!

Former Countries and New Countries: Something else that might throw different people’s counts off are places that are no longer one country or no longer separate countries.  If you visited both East and West Germany pre-1989 then I guess you get two countries. However, if you visited various parts of  Yugoslavia, as my father did, then does it count as one? I guess for that you just count it as what it was at the time of your visit, regardless of what may happen in the future.

Former Yugoslavia: where my father ‘got’ one country, I, so far, have two (Slovenia & Croatia) and counting…

Flag: Of course you could boil it down to the the Eddie Izzard question: “Do you have a lag?” No flag – no country – in which case everyone’s a winner these days!  Eddie Izzard clip

Finally my friends and I got around this tricky one by changing the term ‘country’ to “Travel Destination“.  So if a place can satisfy some of the criteria such as border control, separate parliament, different currency, internationally recognised sports team, then it counts as a “country / travel destination”.

To address question number 2: How do you consider really having visited a country to say that you have ‘been’ there?  Again, arguments and differences of opinion abound.  Do you have to stay the night? How many nights? The Travellers Century Club counts a fuel stop or interchange of transport (eg changing planes but not leaving the airport). That way you can ‘get’ more countries.

For myself, and several of my friends, I believe you do need to leave the port of entry – airport, ferry port etc.  But, we decided, you don’t need to stay the night.  You do, however, have to have a meal and some kind of cultural experience – in short you should come home with a story or two to tell.  Let’s face it some countries are so tiny that staying the night might be tricky / expensive – I’m thinking of Monaco here…

With all that in mind as I continue my travels I count the obvious countries, but I also count as separate places like Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, the Isle of Man, and I will be counting Gibraltar when I go there this summer.

So with all that in the pot – what’s your country count?   For mine – please see my ‘Countries Visited’ page!

Links:  The Travellers Century Club,  the UN member states,