XingR In Flight

How many countries are there, anyway?

It seemed like an easy question.  How many times has that happened to you?  I watched the magnificent opening of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing and they were talking about 204 countries participating.  Hmm. I wondered, surely that couldn’t be all the countries in the world, could it?

So I set out to find out just how many there were and then along the way developed the idea that I would set off on one of my "Flights of Fancy", using Microsoft Flight Simulator to visit all of them.

Well it turns ut that it is not so simple.  Just nailing down an authoritative list of what constitutes a country turns out to be about as difficult as one of my favroite quotes from the Sopranos … Tony, told by a school psychologist that his son fidgets a lot posed the question, "What constitutes a fidget"?  Think hard before you feel you can pose an authoritative answer.  It’s kind of a loaded question.

Obviously, so far as the governing body of the Olympic Games (the International Olympic Committee) ought to know, shouldn’t they.  Well it turns out that the IOC decides who may participate in Olympic activities based upon the certifications of the various athlete’s National Olympic Committees (NOCs).  As of this writing (August 2008) there are 205 of these committees.  But does a NOC constitute a country? Hardly.  In the 2008 games alone there seem to be some  geopolitical entities missing, and there are certainly some participating who really do not have the formal status of a "country" (Palestine being one prime example).  What, you say, WingR sayd Palestine is not a country?  Well, actually the United Nations says that … and what organization should be more qualified to pass judgement on a country’s nationhood than they?

The United nations publishes (available only in hard copy to my knowledge) a an official list of “Country Names” in its Terminology bulletin, but there is only 194 or so there.  That makes them significantly short of the IOC’s list, so the IOC must be allowing "phantom" nations to participate, perhaps.  However The UN also makes available on line its Standard Country or Area Codes for Statistical Use listing, and this brings the total to more than 230, significantly more than the number of countries with NOC’s.

OK, we can’t get closer that ten or twenty away given these sources, so what to do next?  isn’t there a world organization empowered to count things?  yep, there surely is

I’m also indebted to David Madore for his excellent research work here:

http://www.madore.org/~david/misc/countries.html

Afghanistan AFG
Albania ALB
Algeria ALG
American Samoa ASA
Andorra AND
Angola ANG
Antigua and Barbuda ANT
Argentina ARG
Armenia ARM
Aruba ARU
Australia AUS
Austria AUT
Azerbaijan AZE
Bahamas BAH
Bahrain BRN
Bangladesh BAN
Barbados BAR
Belarus BLR
Belgium BEL
Belize BIZ
Benin BEN
Bermuda BER
Bhutan BHU
Bohemia BOH
Bolivia BOL
Bosnia and Herzegovina BIH
Botswana BOT
Brazil BRA
British Virgin Islands IVB
Brunei BRU
Bulgaria BUL
Burkina Faso BUR
Burundi BDI
Cambodia CAM
Cameroon CMR
Canada CAN
Cape Verde CPV
Cayman Islands CAY
Central African Republic CAF
Chad CHA
Chile CHI
China CHN
Chinese Taipei TPE
Colombia COL
Comoros COM
Congo CGO
DR Congo COD
Cook Islands COK
Costa Rica CRC
Côte d’Ivoire CIV
Croatia CRO
Cuba CUB
Cyprus CYP
Czech Republic CZE
Czechoslovakia TCH
Denmark DEN
Djibouti DJI
Dominica DMA
Dominican Republic DOM
Ecuador ECU
Egypt EGY
El Salvador ESA
Equatorial Guinea GEQ
Eritrea ERI
Estonia EST
Ethiopia ETH
Fiji FIJ
Finland FIN
France FRA
Gabon GAB
Gambia GAM
Georgia GEO
Germany GER
East Germany GDR
West Germany FRG
Ghana GHA
Great Britain GBR
Greece GRE
Grenada GRN
Guam GUM
Guatemala GUA
Guinea GUI
Guinea-Bissau GBS
Guyana GUY
Nation Code
Haiti HAI
Honduras HON
Hong Kong HKG
Hungary HUN
Iceland ISL
India IND
Indonesia INA
Iran IRI
Iraq IRQ
Ireland IRL
Israel ISR
Italy ITA
Jamaica JAM
Japan JPN
Jordan JOR
Kazakhstan KAZ
Kenya KEN
Kiribati KIR
North Korea PRK
South Korea KOR
Kuwait KUW
Kyrgyzstan KGZ
Laos LAO
Latvia LAT
Lebanon LIB
Lesotho LES
Liberia LBR
Libya LBA
Liechtenstein LIE
Lithuania LTU
Luxembourg LUX
FYR Macedonia MKD
Madagascar MAD
Malawi MAW
Malaysia MAS
Maldives MDV
Mali MLI
Malta MLT
Mauritania MTN
Mauritius MRI
Mexico MEX
Micronesia FSM
Moldova MDA
Monaco MON
Mongolia MGL
Montenegro MNE
Morocco MAR
Mozambique MOZ
Myanmar MYA
Namibia NAM
Nauru NRU
Nepal NEP
Netherlands NED
Netherlands Antilles AHO
New Zealand NZL
Nicaragua NCA
Niger NIG
Nigeria NGR
Norway NOR
Oman OMA
Pakistan PAK
Palau PLW
Palestine PLE
Panama PAN
Papua New Guinea PNG
Paraguay PAR
Peru PER
Philippines PHI
Poland POL
Portugal POR
Puerto Rico PUR
Qatar QAT
Romania ROU
Russia RUS
Rwanda RWA
Saar SAA
Saint Kitts And Nevis SKN
Saint Lucia LCA
Saint Vincent And The Grenadines VIN
Samoa SAM
San Marino SMR
São Tomé And Príncipe STP
Saudi Arabia KSA
Senegal SEN
Serbia SRB
Seychelles SEY
Sierra Leone SLE
Singapore SIN
Slovakia SVK
Slovenia SLO
Solomon Islands SOL
Somalia SOM
South Africa RSA
Soviet Union URS
Spain ESP
Sri Lanka SRI
Sudan SUD
Suriname SUR
Swaziland SWZ
Sweden SWE
Switzerland SUI
Syria SYR
Tajikistan TJK
Tanzania TAN
Thailand THA
Timor-Leste TLS
Togo TOG
Tonga TGA
Trinidad And Tobago TRI
Tunisia TUN
Turkey TUR
Turkmenistan TKM
Uganda UGA
Ukraine UKR
United Arab Emirates UAE
United States Of America USA
USA
UK
United Kingdom
Uruguay URU
Uzbekistan UZB
Vanuatu VAN
Venezuela VEN
Vietnam VIE
Virgin Islands ISV
Yemen YEM
Yugoslavia YUG
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM