How to count countries you’ve been to
There are many ways people count countries they’ve been to, and there’s no single standard way everyone does it. Some people count if they touched ground in the airport, others don’t count a country if they didn’t stay overnight. So there is a lot of variation in what people consider constitutes a “visit”.
Another thing that can cause confusion is what is counted as a country? Is it fair to count visits to NY, Florida, California, Hawaii, and Alaska as just one country? How do you count Wales, Scotland, and Ireland.
So everyone is pretty much making up their own way of counting. I for one, use this list of “countries” because I agree that going to Scotland is a different place than Ireland. For one, the culture and language are different. So I’d count it as different countries, although all are in Great Britain.
The Travelers’ Century Club makes a list of what they consider to be separate countries based on criteria like that.
This is the Travelers’ Century Club’s official list of countries and territories. Because I’m keeping track of this, I’ve also marked where I’ve visited or where I already have trips booked – marked with * (some have notes afterward)
My current count: 59 countries/territories (using this list).
** indicates it is one I expect to go to in the next two or three years
PACIFIC OCEAN (5/39)
*Australia (East half, including Kangaroo Island)
Bismarck Archipelago (New Ireland, New Britain, Bougainville, Admiralty Islands)
Chatham Islands
Cook Islands (Rarotonga, Aitutaki, Penrhyn)
Easter Island
Fiji Islands
French Polynesia (Tahiti,Tuamotu, Austral, Gambier)
*Galapagos Islands
Guam
*Hawaiian Islands (all inhabited islands including Ni’ihau)
Juan Fernandez Islands (Robinson Crusoe Island)
Kiribati (Gilberts,Tarawa, Ocean Island)
Line/Phoenix Islands (Fanning, Christmas, Canton, Enderbury)
Lord Howe Island
Marquesas Islands
Marshall Islands, Republic of (Majuro, Kwajalein, Eniwetok)
Micronesia, Fed.States of (Pohnpei, Kosrae, Chuuk,Yap,Caroline Islands)
Midway Island
Nauru
New Caledonia & Deps. (Noumea, Loyalty Islands)
*New Zealand (N and S Island circle routes)
Niue
Norfolk Island
Northern Marianas (Saipan, Tinian)
Ogasawara (Bonin, Volcano Island, Iwo Jima)
Palau, Republic of
Papua New Guinea
Pitcairn Island
Ryukyu Islands (Okinawa)
Samoa, American (Pago Pago)
Samoa (Apia)
Solomon Islands (Guadalcanal, New Georgia, Tulagi)
*Tasmania
Tokelau Islands (Fakaofu, Atafu, Union)
Tonga (Nukualofa)
Tuvalu (Ellice Island, Funafuti, Vaitapu)
Vanuatu (New Hebrides Islands)
Wake Island
Wallis & Futuna Islands
NORTH AMERICA (4/6)
*Alaska
*Canada
*Mexico
Prince Edward Island
St. Pierre & Miquelon
*United States (Contiguous)
CENTRAL AMERICA (3/7)
*Belize (British Honduras)
**Costa Rica
El Salvador
Guatemala
*Honduras
Nicaragua
*Panama
SOUTH AMERICA (3/14)
Argentina
Bolivia
Brazil
Chile
*Colombia
*Ecuador
French Guiana
Guyana (British Guiana)
Nueva Esparta (Margarita Island)
Paraguay
*Peru
Suriname (Netherlands Guiana)
Uruguay
Venezuela
CARIBBEAN (14/30)
Anguilla
*Antigua & Barbuda
*Aruba
*Bahamas
*Barbados
Bonaire
*Cayman Islands
*Cuba
*Curacao
Dominica
*Dominican Republic
*Grenada & Deps. (Carriacou, Grenadines)
Guadeloupe & Deps. (Marie Galante)
Haiti
*Jamaica
Martinique
Montserrat
*Puerto Rico
Saba & Sint Eustatius
Saint-Barthélemy
Saint-Martin (France)
San Andres & Providencia
Sint Maarten (Netherlands)
*St. Kitts & Nevis
*St. Lucia
St. Vincent & the Grenadines
Trinidad & Tobago
Turks & Caicos Islands
Virgin Islands, British (Tortola, etc.)
*Virgin Islands, U.S. (St. Croix, St. John, St. Thomas)
ATLANTIC OCEAN (1/14)
Ascension
Azores Islands
Bermuda
Canary Islands
Cape Verde Islands
Falkland Islands
Faroe Islands
Fernando de Noronha
Greenland (Kalaallit Nunaat)
**Iceland
Madeira
South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands
St. Helena
Tristan da Cunha
EUROPE & MEDITERRANEAN (19/68)
Aland Islands (Mariehamn)
Albania
Andorra
*Austria
Balearic Islands (Mallorca, Minorca)
Belarus
*Belgium
Bosnia & Herzegovina
Bulgaria
Corsica
Crete
*Croatia
Cyprus, British Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri & Dhekelia
Cyprus, Republic
Cyprus, Turkish Fed. State
*Czech Republic
Denmark
*England
Estonia
Finland
*France
*Germany (once as West Germany too)
Gibraltar
**Greece
Greek Aegean Islands (Cyclades, Dodecanese,
Northern Aegean Islands)
Guernsey & Deps. (Alderney, Herm, Sark, Channel Islands)
*Hungary
Ionian Islands (Corfu, etc.)
Ireland (Eire)
Ireland, Northern (Ulster)
Isle of Man
*Italy
Jersey (Channel Islands)
Kaliningrad
Kosovo
Lampedusa
Latvia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
*Luxembourg
Macedonia
*Malta
Moldova
Monaco
*Montenegro
*Netherlands
Norway
Poland
*Portugal
Romania
Russia
San Marino
Sardinia
Scotland
*Serbia
Sicily
Slovakia
*Slovenia
*Spain
Spitsbergen (Svalbard, Bear Island)
Srpska
Sweden
Switzerland
Transnistria (Pridnestrovie)
*Turkey in Europe (Istanbul)
Ukraine
*Vatican City
Wales
ANTARCTICA (0/7)
Argentine Antarctica (Antarctic Peninsula)
Australian Antarctic Territory (Mawson, Davis, Macquarie, Heard)
British Antarctic Territory (Graham Land, South Orkney, South Shetland)
Chilean Antarctic Territory (Antarctic Peninsula)
French Southern & Antarctic Lands (Adélie Land, Kerguelen, Amsterdam, St. Paul, Crozet, Îles Éparses)
Norwegian Dependencies (Queen Maud Land, Bouvet)
New Zealand Antarctica (Ross Dependency)
AFRICA (3/55)
Algeria
Angola
Benin (Dahomey)
Botswana (Bechuanaland)
Burkina Faso (Upper Volta)
Burundi (Urundi)
Cabinda
Cameroon
Central African Republic
Chad
Democratic Republic of the Congo (Kinshasa)
Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville)
Djibouti
*Egypt in Africa
Equatorial Guinea (Bioko)
Equatorial Guinea (Rio Muni)
Eritrea
Ethiopia
Gabon
Gambia
Ghana (Gold Coast, British Togoland)
Guinea (French Guinea)
Guinea-Bissau
Ivory Coast
*Kenya
Lesotho (Basutoland)
Liberia
Libya
Malawi (Nyasaland)
Mali
Mauritania
*Morocco
Morocco,Spanish (Ceuta, Melilla)
Mozambique
Namibia
Niger
Nigeria
Rwanda
Sao Tome & Principe
Senegal
Sierra Leone
Somalia (Italian Somaliland)
Somaliland (British)
**South Africa
South Sudan
Sudan
Swaziland
*Tanzania (Tanganyika)
Togo
Tunisia
Uganda
Western Sahara (Spanish Sahara)
Zambia (No. Rhodesia)
Zanzibar
Zimbabwe (So. Rhodesia)
MIDDLE EAST (0/21)
Abu Dhabi
Ajman
Bahrain
Dubai
Egypt in Asia (Sinai Peninsula)
Fujairah
Iran
Iraq
Israel
*Jordan
Kuwait
Lebanon
Oman
Palestine
Qatar
Ras Al Khaimah
Saudi Arabia
Sharjah
Syria
Umm Al Qaiwain
Yemen
INDIAN OCEAN (0/15)
Andaman-Nicobar Islands
British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago, Diego Garcia)
Christmas Island
Cocos (Keeling) Islands
Comoros (Anjouan, Moheli, Grand Comoro)
Lakshadweep
**Madagascar
Maldives
Mauritius & Dependencies (Agalega, St. Brandon)
Mayotte (Dzaoudzi)
Reunion & Dependencies (Tromelin, Glorioso)
Rodrigues Island
Seychelles
Socotra
Zil Elwannyen Sesel (Aldabra, Farquhar, Amirante Islands)
ASIA (8/51)
Abkhazia
Afghanistan
Armenia (Yerevan)
Azerbaijan (Baku)
Bangladesh
Bhutan
Brunei
*Cambodia
*China, People’s Republic
Georgia
Hainan Island
Hong Kong
*India
*Indonesia (Java)
Japan
Jeju Island (South Korea)
Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo)
Kashmir
Kazakhstan
Korea, North
Korea, South
Kyrgyzstan
*Laos
Lesser Sunda Islands (Bali,Timor, Indonesia)
Macau
Malaysia
Maluku Islands
Mongolia, Republic
Myanmar (Burma)
Nakhchivan
Nepal
Pakistan
Papua (Irian Jaya)
Philippines
Russia in Asia (incl. Siberia)
Sabah (North Borneo)
Sarawak
Sikkim
* Singapore
Sri Lanka (Ceylon)
Sulawesi (Celebes, Indonesia)
Sumatra (Indonesia)
Taiwan. R.O.C.
Tajikistan
*Thailand
Tibet
Timor-Leste
*Turkey in Asia (Anatolia, Ankara, Izmir)
Turkmenistan
Uzbekistan
**Vietnam
