COUNTRYSpec: A catalogue of the world’s countries
57 of 240 countries published1 of 5 continents
COUNTRYSpec is a reference catalogue of the world's 240 countries, dependencies and disputed territories, one page for each, published a continent at a time. Each published entry has pages for its statistics, flag, time zones and public holidays, where a population or GDP figure always appears with the date it was measured; 57 of them also carry an overview and six articles.
It depends on what is counted. COUNTRYSpec holds 240 countries and territories: 196 sovereign states, 42 dependencies and 2 disputed territories. The records mark 193 of them as members of the United Nations.
A dependency is governed by another state, as Greenland is by Denmark. A disputed territory works as a state without settled recognition, as Taiwan and Western Sahara do.
Europe is published. Africa, the Americas, Asia and Oceania are in preparation, and each of their countries has a record page.
The catalogue
One page for every country and territory, filed under five indexes. The counts below come from the records as they stood on 28 Sep 2026.
Each sovereign state, dependency and disputed territory has a record: capital, population, area, codes and memberships, and every measured figure carries its date. The 57 countries in Europe are published in full so far.
One of each kind
A published country carries
6articles342 written
Each article is written from the country’s own sources and sits beside the overview.
4record pages228 built
Each group page covers one international organisation or bloc and lists its members with the year each joined.
Each currency page gives the sign, how an amount is written and where the currency is legal tender.
138 of them are official in a single country.
Every official language has a page: its own name in its own script, its ISO codes, and every country that makes it official.
39 of them are official in more than one country.
Each continent page lists its regions and every country filed under it.
Each region sits inside a continent and holds between 1 and 28 countries.
Revised 28 Sep 2026
Counted from the 240 records as they stood on 28 Sep 2026. The holiday figure counts the days off in 2026 across the 57 countries with a holiday page.
Recently published
Each country here carries its overview, six topic articles and its statistics, flag, time and holiday pages. Newest first; the eight most recent are shown.
Questions
No single number is agreed, because lists differ on dependencies and on states whose recognition is disputed. COUNTRYSpec holds 240 countries and territories: 196 sovereign states, 42 dependencies and 2 disputed territories (Taiwan and Western Sahara). Each country's page says which of the three it is.
The catalogue files 57 countries under Europe, in 10 regions: 50 sovereign states and 7 dependencies. The dependencies are Åland, Faroe Islands, Gibraltar, Greenland, Guernsey, Isle of Man and Jersey, each governed from another state. The regions are listed on the continent's own page.
A published country has a page with its record, and separate pages for its statistics, flag, time zones and public holidays. 57 of the 57 published countries also carry an overview and six articles: history, geography, politics, economy, culture and travel. Countries on continents still in preparation keep their basic record until the continent is published.
A population is a count taken on a particular day. The same property in the source data can hold this year's estimate next to a census from 1877, so a number printed alone can be a century old and still read as current. Every population, GDP and other measured figure on the site appears with the date it belongs to, and where no dated figure exists the field says so.
Europe is published, with 57 countries. Africa, the Americas, Asia and Oceania are in preparation; their 183 countries each have a record page in the meantime, and each continent's page lists its countries and regions.
Population, area, capitals, languages, currencies, group memberships and flags come from Wikidata. GDP, inflation, unemployment, life expectancy and income inequality come from the World Bank, with the series identifier printed beside each figure. Time zones come from the IANA time zone database, public holidays from Nager.Date, and the country outlines, including the map on this page, from Natural Earth.