COUNTRYSpec: A catalogue of the world’s countries
COUNTRYSpec is a reference catalogue of the world's 240 countries, dependencies and disputed territories, published a continent at a time. Each country gets an overview and six long articles on its history, culture, economy, politics, geography and travel, plus pages for its statistics, flag, time zones and public holidays, where a population or GDP figure always appears with the date it was measured.
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.
Every continent is published. A country whose articles are still being written shows its record, with every figure dated, until they are.
The catalogue
One page for every country and territory, filed under five indexes. The counts below come from the records as they stood on 25 Oct 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 240 countries in Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa and Oceania are published in full so far.
One of each kind
A published country carries
6articles882 written
Each article is written from the country’s own sources and sits beside the overview.
4record pages865 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 25 Oct 2026
Counted from the 240 records as they stood on 25 Oct 2026. The holiday figure counts the days off in 2026 across the 145 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 58 countries under Africa, in 8 regions: 54 sovereign states and 3 dependencies. The dependencies are Mayotte, Réunion and Saint Helena, 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. 147 of the 240 published countries also carry an overview and six articles: history, geography, politics, economy, culture and travel. A country not yet written shows its basic record, with every figure dated, until its articles are.
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.
Every continent is published: Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania. Each continent's page lists its countries and regions, and a country whose articles are still being written shows its record in the meantime.
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.