If you've ever tried to count every country in the world, you may have run into the same problem we did when creating our GeoCards World Complete Edition deck: the answer depends entirely on how you define "country." It might seem like an odd place to find complexity — naming countries for a geographical puzzle and game company. But the moment you decide which countries to include, or where to draw a border, you're making choices that matter. 

Geography has always been at least partly political. For us, that means every product we make comes with a responsibility to think carefully, be transparent about our reasoning, and acknowledge that there are people on multiple sides of these questions who care deeply about how their corner of the world is represented. We don't always get it perfectly right, but we believe the effort to engage thoughtfully is far better than pretending these decisions are neutral, because they never are.

For our GeoCards World Complete Edition deck, our goal was to reflect the world as most people experience and understand it. We eventually landed on 196 countries. Here's how we got there.

Starting with the UN

The most widely recognized benchmark for statehood is membership in the United Nations. There are currently 193 UN member states, spanning every continent and representing the vast majority of the world's recognized nations. Following its independence from Sudan, South Sudan became the most recent country to gain UN country status on July 14, 2011. For most of our cards, UN membership was the baseline.

UN recognized nations include:

A
Afghanistan Albania Algeria Andorra Angola Antigua and Barbuda	Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan
B
The Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bhutan	Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi
C
Cabo Verde Cambodia Cameroon Canada Central African Republic Chad Chile China	Colombia Comoros Costa Rica Côte d'Ivoire Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czechia
D
Democratic Republic of the Congo Denmark Djibouti	Dominica Dominican Republic
E
Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea	Eritrea Estonia Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) Ethiopia
F
Fiji Finland France
G
Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Greece	Grenada Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana
H
Haiti Holy See (Vatican City) *	Honduras Hungary
I
Iceland India Indonesia Iran	Iraq Ireland Israel Italy
J
Jamaica Japan Jordan
K
Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati	Kosovo * Kuwait Kyrgyzstan
L
Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia	Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg
M
Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Mauritania Mauritius	Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Morocco Mozambique Myanmar
N
Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua	Niger Nigeria North Korea North Macedonia Norway
O
Oman
P
Pakistan Palau Palestine * Panama Papua New Guinea	Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal
Q
Qatar
R
Republic of the Congo Romania	Russia Rwanda
S
Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia	Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Korea South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Sweden Switzerland Syria
T
Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tonga	Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Tuvalu
U
Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom	United States of America Uruguay Uzbekistan
V
Vanuatu Venezuela Vietnam
Y
Yemen
Z
Zambia Zimbabwe

* Non-member Observer States (Holy See, Palestine) and partially recognized state (Kosovo) included beyond the 193 UN member baseline.

Going Beyond Full Membership

Full UN membership isn't the only marker of recognized statehood. The UN also designates a category called “Non-member Observer States.” These are entities that have been granted permanent observer status by the General Assembly: this gives them the ability to participate in UN proceedings without holding full voting privileges. Currently, two territories hold this status: the Holy See (Vatican City) and the State of Palestine. Both are recognized as states by a significant portion of the international community, and both are included in our deck.

That brings us to 195. The remaining entry reflects a territory with a well-established, distinct national identity and broad international recognition even outside the formal UN framework — which is Kosovo.

Why We Landed on 196

Kosovo does not have any formal UN classification as a state. It is not a member of the United Nations, but Kosovo declared independence from Serbia on February 17, 2008, while still being denied UN membership because Serbia continues to claim Kosovo as its own.

Unlike Palestine and Vatican City, Kosovo doesn't hold Non-member Observer State status. It simply exists outside the UN framework entirely, as a partially recognized state. As of late 2025, around 110 out of 193 UN member states have recognized Kosovo. Because of this majority we decided to include Kosovo on our deck.

Geography is a living thing. Borders shift, names change, and questions arise that have no easy answers. We'll revisit these decisions with every new edition of our products, and we welcome the conversation. If you have thoughts on our choices — whether you agree, disagree, or simply want to share a perspective we may not have considered — we'd love to hear from you.

Stay GeoCurious!