In political geography and international politics, a country is a political division of a geographical entity. Frequently a sovereign territory, the term is most commonly associated with the notions of both state and nation, and also with government.

In common usage, the term is used casually in the sense of both nations and states. Definitions may vary. It is sometimes used to refer to both states and some other political entities,^[1] while in some occasions it refers only to states.^[2] It is not uncommon for general information or statistical publications to adopt the wider definition for purposes such as illustration and comparison.^[3]

There are non-sovereign territories (subnational entities, another form of political division or administrative division within a larger nation-state) which constitute cohesive geographical entities, some of which are former states, but which are not presently sovereign states. Some are commonly designated as countries (e.g. England, Scotland and Wales), while others are not (e.g., Cornwall, Brittany and Texas). The degree of autonomy and local government varies widely. Some are possessions of states, as several states have overseas dependencies (e.g., the British Virgin Islands, Netherlands Antilles, and American Samoa), with territory and citizenry separate from their own. Such dependent territories are sometimes listed together with states on lists of countries.^[3]

Formal recognition as a 'country' requires the fulfillment of several criteria: effective control by a government, a 'permanent and settled population' that shares a 'common purpose', a fixed area of geographical land (rather than an artifical structure, such as Sealand), and (perhaps the most difficult criterion to satisfy) recognition (usually by diplomatic or political channels) by the international community.

See also

• Nation state for the history of the development of the modern nation states
• List of countries
• Lists by country
• List of sovereign states
• List of international rankings
• Constituent Countries
• State
• Dependent area
• List of dependent territories
• List of subnational entities
• ISO 3166-1, list of countries and corresponding international standard codes
• Country calling codes, list of telephone prefixes
• List of country name etymologies
• List of enclaves and exclaves
• Territory
• Border
• CIA World Factbook

References

• Anderson, Benedict; 'Imagined Communities: Reflections On the origin and Spread of Nationalism'; London, Verso; 1991
• Viotti, Paul R. and Kauppi, Mark V.; 'International Relations and World Politics - Security, Economy, Identity'; Second Edition; New Jersey, Prentice Hall; 2001

External links

• List of countries List of countries in various formats (CSV, TXT, HTML) for use in databases and applications
• List of nationalities List of nationalities in various formats (CSV, TXT, HTML) for use in databases and applications
• Geography Site Country Profiles - Based on the ''CIA World Factbook''
• How many countries are there?
• Demonyms - What do you call people from different countries?
• Library of Congress - Country Studies
• BBC Country Profiles
• The CIA World Factbook
• The US Department of State - Background Notes Facts and information on countries, dependencies and areas of special sovereignty around the world
• PopulationData.net
• United Nations statistics division
• United Nations eDocs Web Service XML data list of countries.
• United Nations - UNeDocs Code List Web Service
• Average Latitude & Longitude of Countries

ar:??? (?????) ay:Jach'a marka be-x-old:?????? br:Bro ca:País cy:Gwlad el:???? es:País eo:Lando fa:???? fr:Pays gl:País gu:??? sw:Nchi lad:Pais ja:?? hu:Ország ms:Negara (geografi) nds:Land nl:Land pl:Pays pt:País ro:?ar? rmy:Them ru:?????? simple:Country sv:Land ta:???? th:?????? tr:Ülke uk:?????? yi:???? zh:??