List of sovereign states

The following is a list providing an overview of sovereign states around the world with information on their status and recognition of their sovereignty.

Compiling a list such as this can be complicated and controversial, as there is no definition that is binding on all the members of the community of nations concerning the criteria for statehood.

The list is intended to include entities that have been recognised as having de facto status as sovereign states, and inclusion should not be seen as an endorsement of any specific claim to statehood in legal terms.

The Convention defines the state as a person of international law if it "possess[es] the following qualifications: (a) a permanent population; (b) a defined territory; (c) government; and (d) a capacity to enter into relations with the other states" so long as it was not "obtained by force whether this consists in the employment of arms, in threatening diplomatic representations, or in any other effective coercive measure".

For the purposes of this list, included are all polities that consider themselves sovereign states (through a declaration of independence or some other means) and either: In some cases, there is a divergence of opinion over the interpretation of the first point, and whether an entity satisfies it is disputed.

Unique political entities which fail to meet the classification of a sovereign state are considered proto-states.

[45][46][47] These territories are not usually regarded as sovereign, as they do not fulfil the criteria set out by the declarative theory of statehood (for example, their current laws do not allow them to engage independently in relations with other states).

In turn, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic claims the part of Western Sahara to the west of the Moroccan sand wall controlled by Morocco.

In the WTO, the ROC has full membership under the designation of "Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu".