The smallest fully sovereign microstate is Vatican City, with 911 citizens as of July 2003 and an area of only 0.44 km²[1]. In Rome, Italy, the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM) (not to be confused with Malta, an island microstate in the Mediterranean) is an effectively non-territorial sovereign entity that might also be considered to be a microstate; its sovereignty is recognized by 105 states, 100 of which have entered into full diplomatic relations,[2] but unlike the Vatican City state it has no substantive territorial base (the SMOM's only property, its headquarters buildings, holds extraterritorial status, similar to an embassy building). Neither the Vatican nor SMOM are members of the United Nations, although both have permanent observer status at the UN, Vatican City as "non-member state", SMOM as "other entity".
Microstates should not be confused with micronations, which are not recognized as sovereign states.
Special territories like the Channel Islands without full
sovereignty are also not considered as microstates.
↑ Excludes the island of Mayotte. The UN estimate is 839,000 (including Mayotte)
↑ A 2003 U.S State Department report states the following: "Although the 2002 census estimated the population at 1,015,000, credible estimates put the number at closer to 500,000. The opposition claimed that the Government inflated the census in anticipation of the December presidential election." (...) "Opposition leaders charged earlier in the year that census results showing a twofold population increase were flawed and that numbers were inflated to perpetuate election fraud." http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2002/18181.htm The official census figures are available here.
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