Alphabetical list of countries of the world

The independent country is not only a self-governed nation with its own authorities, but this status needs the international diplomatic recognition of sovereignty.

Thereby, we can say that the total number of independent states in the world today is 197, including 193 fully recognized members of the United Nations and 2 countries, Vatican City and Palestine, have the status of permanent observers in the UN. The other 2 states we include in the list are Kosovo (recognized by 98 UN members) and Taiwan (recognized by 15 countries).