How many Countries does our planet has?

There are 196 nations according to JetPunk. 48 in Asia. 45 in Europe. 54 in Africa. 23 in N. America. 12 in S. America. 14 in Oceania. These numbers are almost similar to that of United Nation. Except of 2, Taiwan and Kosovo. Both are not a nation according to UN. So, there are 194 members of UN. No, Palestine is also a nation according to UN. If you will go to this quiz and read the comments, you will clearly understand the matter of Palestine. There was a huge debate on Palestine.

Let us learn about Palestine in a brief :

Israel considers Palestine to be a part of its country, but Palestine do not agrees. In a war between Israel and Palestine, Palestine somehow became independent.
It gave an application in UN to be a full member. Palestine got support by 138 out of 193 members. So, it can technically be a member. But, USA and Israel are BFF and USA has veto powers, So, USA doesn't let Palestine to be a full member, but it became an observing state, like the Holy See (Vatican City).

Kosovo is a recognized by JetPunk. So, is it a country?

According to US Department of state list, there are 195 nations, all same as of UN, but Kosovo instead of Palestine. Even Kosovo is recognized by 100 nation, it can also become a UN member. But is doesn't gave any application to UN because of veto powers. Out of 5 permanent members ( UK, USA, France, Russia and China) , China and Russia do not recognize Kosovo. So, it would be difficult for Kosovo to become a UN member.

Taiwan : A Boring History Class

Taiwan is another great issue. Once, Taiwan said that China is its, and China said that Taiwan is its. Well, now the demands of Taiwan is less. They just want Taiwan to be fully independent from China, but China doesn't want Taiwan to be free.
According to UN, it is part of China but it operates as its own country. Taiwan's official name is ' Republic of China', not get confused by ' People's Republic of China', or commonly called China. To fully understand the scenario, let's go back to 1895, when Japan captured Taiwan from Qing empire (now China). After 20th century, empire fall and Qing empire get converted into Republic of China. Nationalist Party won the election but later it was overthrown by Communist Party. In 1927, a civil war began between these two parties. Japan tried to took its profit by invading China during civil war. In 1937, Japan began a full scaled invasion of China and took control of Beijing. Civil war was stopped so that China could defend itself. Between all this, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, starting a war against USA. Japan finally declared in 1945 after bombing on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan signed the Potsdam declaration according to which Japan will be limited to Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku, i.e. not Taiwan (which it captured in 1895). Therefore, Taiwan was handed to Republic of China. One year later, civil war was continued. But this time Communist party was winning and gained control of all of the mainland China forcing the Nationalist party to move to the island of Taiwan. This ended the civil war and Republic of China became People's Republic of China of communist party. The Republic of China was moved to Taiwan. This created the situation where both were claiming same land i.e. the whole of China. Republic of China changed its demand for only claiming the island of Taiwan and it gave a letter to UN but China used its veto power as it is a permanent member. Taiwan is much like any other nation. It has its own passport, government, president, military and it even take part in sports event as Chinese Taipei. There are several countries in which you can find embassies. But not that many nations recognize Taiwan officially. Hope everyone is cleared with Taiwan's situation. If not, then don't worry. It's complicated.

Ah... we have 195 UN nation. 2 other which are recognized by JetPunk. We reached to a very new number of countries. 197 countries. But wait, there are more cases.

Ugh... Is England a nation no?

Okay. Next is United Kingdom, or "County of Countries". Why? Because there are 4 reasons :-

1) ENGLAND

2) SCOTLAND

3) WALES

4) NORTHERN IRELAND

So, is UK one country or four countries? First of all, it is a misconception that there are 4 countries. Actually there are 3. Northern Ireland was never considered a country. When Ireland get separated from Great Britain, the whole Ireland was separated. But later, Northern Ireland joined Great Britain. Formerly, it was always a part of Ireland. It is now considered a province.

So, UK consist 3 countries and 1 province. Well, these three countries are not independent, or sovereign state but they are still countries. The term for countries within countries is constituent country. So, England, Wales and Scotland are constituent countries. It is not unique to UK, but also it can be find in the Netherlands. Actually, Netherlands is also a constituent country of The Kingdom of the Netherlands, with three other countries in the Caribbean - Aruba, Curacao and Sint Maarten. Another example is Denmark with two other constituent countries - Greenland and Faroe Islands. Even French Polynesia is said to be a constituent country of France. Nieu and Cook Island are free association of New Zealand

Okay, so have covered the following constituent countries:

A) UNITED KINGDOM

1) England

2) Scotland

3) Wales

B) NETHERLANDS

1) Aruba

2) Curacao

3) Sint Maaeten

C) DENMARK

1) Greenland

2) Faroe Island

D) FRANCE

1) French Polynesia

E) NEW ZEALAND

1) Niue

2) Cook Islands

So, there are 11 more countries. Now, the new number is 208

But there are some disputed countries, like Somaliland, Northern Cyprus, Western Sahara, South Ossetia, Abkhazia, Artsakh and Transnistria ( SOURCE ) The new number is now 215.

But, if we will consider all the territories given in this page, then the new number is 215+57=272

So, what is the correct answer?

There is no universal right answer. All answers are wrong. The smallest number of countries you can find is the number of countries that are fully recognized, i.e. 187 nations. The second smallest number you can find is 193. It is the number of members of UN, not counting observing nations. While the biggest answer is, ugh..., unknown. We came to a final number of 272. But counting doesn't stop there. There are thousands of millions of answers. But, no one is correct. So, there is no absolute answer, but the answer you think is best, is right (only for you). If you are a JetPunker, then you might be thinking of 196. If you are in UN, then 195 is right. All answers are correct and simultaneously wrong.