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This article describes country as a type of geographical or political entity. Country is also a short form for the countryside or the country music genre.

In political geography and international politics a country is a geographical territory. It is used casually in the sense of both nation (a cultural entity; see below) and sovereign state (a political entity). Some definitions tend to place it as meaning only the sovereign state, though general use is wider than this.

There are dozens of non-sovereign territories which constitute geographical countries, but are not sovereign states. Several states have overseas dependencies, with territory and citizenry separate from their own. They are sometimes listed together with sovereign states on lists of countries.

Characteristics of a country

A country usually has its own government, administration and laws; and often a constitution, police, military, tax rules, and a population who are referred to as one another's countrymen. Together they form what Benedict Anderson has referred to as an imagined community.

Types of country

The State

A State is an independent territory with a government, a population and sovereignty over these. The entire landmass of the Earth (excluding Antarctica), along with coastal seas is considered to be divided among such countries. There are currently 193 states (countries) recognized by the United Nations — its 192 members and the Vatican City.

In addition to these, there are other non sovereign territories which, under the philosophy of self-determination, wish to be considered countries in this sense. Some of these have de facto control over their population and territory, such as Abkazia, but are not considered states as they are not recognised as having sovereignty. On the other hand, in some internationally-recognized states, there is no functioning central government or there are several de facto states and governments. These are internationally not considered to constitute separate states, but rather to exist on the territory of the internationally recognized state.

Nation

A nation is a 'set of people with a common identity who have formed a nation-state or usually aspire to do so' (Viotti and Kauppi, 2001). In this sense of country, the reference is more likely to be to a group that supposedly shares a common ethnic origin, language, religion, or history (real or imagined). The term has become synonymous with 'country' where nations without sovereignty (that is, nations that are not states) have aimed to identify themselves on the same terms as sovereign states. Others, including nationalists, may consider their single nation (or country) to be divided between different states.

Constituent countries

Four of the constituent parts of the United Kingdom, which itself may be considered a country in the sense of this article, are also called countries: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales (see constituent countries of the United Kingdom). Northern Ireland is also sometimes referred to as a province of the United Kingdom.

Nation, country and state

The casual use of 'country', 'state' and 'nation' as synonyms leads to confusion. Confounding this is the often confused official use: for example, the United Nations is actually a body made up of 'states'; and the countries constituting the United Kingdom are often called the home nations.

In the English language, the terms nation (cultural), country (geographical) and state (political) do have precise meanings, but in daily speech and writing they are often used interchangeably, and are open to different interpretations. For example, Cornwall is considered by some to be a nation in England which is a constituent country, or home nation, of the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom is an internationally recognised sovereign state, which is also referred to as a country and whose inhabitants have British nationality. The terminology can be further complicated by the use of the word state to mean a non-sovereign sub-entity of a sovereign state, as is done in the United States of America and Australia. In most English-speaking countries when the terms state, nation and country are used internally, they are understood by the context in which they are used and are not controversial. However, when these terms are used to describe the statehood aspirations of a people who do not currently live in the internationally recognised independent state they would like to inhabit, these terms can be controversial and open to misunderstanding.

In reality, there is often a rough correspondence between both senses of country - this is the concept of the nation-state. It is one that many governments have attempted to encourage, in order to provide legitimacy to their control over a territory. However, because of historical and modern migration, ethnically homogeneous communities are rare or non-existent (Iceland and Japan being the most commonly quoted exceptions).

See also

• Nation-state for the history of the development of the modern nation states
• List of countries
• Lists by country
• 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

References

1. [http://geography.about.com/cs/politicalgeog/a/statenation.htm About.com:"Geography: Country, State, and Nation".
2. http://www.countryreports.org/country.aspx?countryid=96&countryName=Greenland, http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/content_pages/record.asp?recordid=46682

• 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

• Geography Site Country Profiles
• How many countries are there?
• Demonyms - What do you call people from different countries?
• BBC Country Profiles
• The CIA World Factbook
• The US Department of State Background notes on countries the US has relations with
• Lonely Planet Clickable map and information on the world's countries
• Nations Online
• Nationmaster.com Allows sorting countries on all kinds of statistics
• PopulationData.net
• United Nations statistics division
• United Nations eDocs Web Service XML data list of countries.
• United Nations - UNeDocs Code List Web Service
• Google Video: Animaniacs, Countries of the World – Song listing all the countries as of 1996
• How many countries are there in the world? an article by David Madore on this unanswerable question

• Countries
• Human geography