This is a list of sovereign states giving an overview of states around the world with information on the status and recognition of their sovereignty.
The list contains 206 entries. The states are divided using two distinct methods:
- The membership within the United Nations system column divides the states into two categories: 193 member states and one observer state in the United Nations, and 12 other states.
- The sovereignty disputes column divides the states into two categories: 16 states whose sovereignty is disputed and 190 other states.
Compiling a list such as this can be a difficult and controversial process, as there is no definition that is binding on all the members of the community of nations concerning the criteria for statehood. For more information on the criteria used to determine the contents of this list, please see the criteria for inclusion section below.
Read more about List Of Sovereign States: List of States, Criteria For Inclusion
Famous quotes containing the words list of, list, sovereign and/or states:
“Every morning I woke in dread, waiting for the day nurse to go on her rounds and announce from the list of names in her hand whether or not I was for shock treatment, the new and fashionable means of quieting people and of making them realize that orders are to be obeyed and floors are to be polished without anyone protesting and faces are to be made to be fixed into smiles and weeping is a crime.”
—Janet Frame (b. 1924)
“We saw the machinery where murderers are now executed. Seven have been executed. The plan is better than the old one. It is quietly done. Only a few, at the most about thirty or forty, can witness [an execution]. It excites nobody outside of the list permitted to attend. I think the time for capital punishment has passed. I would abolish it. But while it lasts this is the best mode.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“If these were only words that I am speaking
Indifferent sounds and not the heraldic-ho
Of the clear sovereign that is reality,
Of the clearest reality that is sovereign,
How should I repeat them, keep repeating them....”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“I believe the citizens of Marion County and the United States want to have judges who have feelings and who are human beings.”
—Paula Lopossa, U.S. judge. As quoted in the New York Times, p. B9 (May 21, 1993)