Country

A **country** is a distinct territorial body or political entity. It is often referred to as the land of an individual's birth, residence or citizenship.

A country may be an independent sovereign state or part of a larger state, as a non-sovereign or formerly sovereign political division, a physical territory with a government, or a geographic region associated with sets of previously independent or differently associated people with distinct political characteristics. It is not inherently sovereign.

*Countries* can refer both to sovereign states and to other political entities, while other times it can refer only to states. For example, the *CIA World Factbook* uses the word in its "Country name" field to refer to "a wide variety of dependencies, areas of special sovereignty, uninhabited islands, and other entities in addition to the traditionalTemplate:Weasel inline countries or independent states".Template:NoteTag

The largest country in the world by geographical area is Russia, while the most populous is China, followed by India, the United States, Indonesia, Pakistan and Brazil. The newest UN member is South Sudan, followed by Montenegro. Admission of new members requires the approval of the General Assembly; and UN membership has since 1991 been reserved to sovereign states.

## Etymology and usage

The word *country* comes from Old French *contrée*, which derives from Vulgar Latin (*terra*) *contrata* ("(land) lying opposite"; "(land) spread before"), derived from *contra* ("against, opposite"). It most likely entered the English language after the Franco-Norman invasion during the 11th century.

In English the word has increasingly become associated with political divisions, so that one sense, associated with the indefinite article – "a country" – through misuse and subsequent conflation is now a synonym for state, or a former sovereign state, in the sense of sovereign territory or "district, native land". Areas much smaller than a political state may be called by names such as the West Country in England, the Black Country (a heavily industrialized part of England), "Constable Country" (a part of East Anglia painted by John Constable), the "big country" (used in various contexts of the American West), "coal country" (used of parts of the US and elsewhere) and many other terms.

The equivalent terms in French and other Romance languages (*pays* and variants) have not carried the process of being identified with political sovereign states as far as the English "country", instead derived from, pagus, which designated the territory controlled by a medieval count, a title originally granted by the Catholic Church. In many European countries the words are used for sub-divisions of the national territory, as in the German Bundesländer, as well as a less formal term for a sovereign state. France has very many "pays" that are officially recognized at some level, and are either natural regions, like the Pays de Bray, or reflect old political or economic entities, like the Pays de la Loire.

A version of "country" can be found in the modern French language as *contrée*, based on the word *cuntrée* in Old French, that is used similarly to the word "pays" to define non-state regions, but can also be used to describe a political state in some particular cases. The modern Italian *contrada* is a word with its meaning varying locally, but usually meaning a ward or similar small division of a town, or a village or hamlet in the countryside.

## Country names

*See also: List of country-name etymologies, Country code, and List of ISO 3166 country codes*Most countries have two names, a protocol name and a geographical name or short name.
The protocol name (full name, formal name, official name) e.g. *the Republic of India*, the *Slovak Republic*, the *Czech Republic*, the *Swiss Confederation*, the *State of Qatar*, the *Principality of Monaco*, the *Kingdom of Norway*, the *Grand Duchy of Luxembourg*, the *Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia*, the *People's Democratic Republic of Algeria*, the *Argentine Republic*, the *United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland*, the *United States of America*, the *United Mexican States*, the *Commonwealth of Australia*, the *Socialist Republic of Vietnam*, the *Union of Soviet Socialist Republics*. The long form (official title) is used when the state is targeted as a legal entity: e.g. *This Decision is addressed to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.*, *The French Republic is authorised to …*, *Agreement between the Arab Republic of Egypt and the Russian Federation …*. If the recurrence of the name of a state in the text leads to a preference for using the short form, it can be introduced with the phrase ‘hereinafter referred to as …’.

The geographical name (short name) e.g. *India*, *Slovakia*, *Czechia*, *Switzerland*, *Qatar*, *Monaco*, *Norway*, *Luxembourg*, *Ethiopia*, *Algeria*, *Argentina*, the *United Kingdom*, the *United States*, *Mexico*, *Australia*, *Vietnam*, the *Soviet Union*. The short form (short name) is used when the state is referred to geographically or economically:  e.g. *Workers residing in France*, *Exports from Greece …*.

For certain states, the long form and the short form are identical: e.g. the *Central African Republic*, the *Democratic Republic of the Congo*, the *Dominican Republic*, the *United Arab Emirates*, *Bosnia and Herzegovina*, *Canada*, *Georgia*, *Hungary*, *Iceland*, *Ireland*, *Jamaica*, *Japan*, *Malaysia*, *Mongolia*, *Montenegro*, *New Zealand*, *Romania*, *Saint Lucia*, *Saint Vincent and the Grenadines*, the *Solomon Islands*, *Turkmenistan*, *Tuvalu*, *Ukraine*.

## Country symbols

*See also: National symbol*
* flag
* coat of arms or national emblem
* seal or stamp
* national motto
* national colors
* national anthem

## Sovereignty status

*See also: List of sovereign states*The term "country" can refer to a sovereign state. There is no universal agreement on the number of "countries" in the world since a number of states have disputed sovereignty status. By one application of the declarative theory of statehood and constitutive theory of statehood, there are 206 sovereign states; of which 193 are members of the United Nations, two have observer status at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) (the Holy See and Palestine), and 11 others are neither a member nor observer at the UNGA. The latest proclaimed state is South Sudan since 2011.
The degree of autonomy of non-sovereign countries varies widely. Some are possessions of sovereign states, as several states have overseas territories (such as French Polynesia, a *pays d'outre-mer*, or the British Virgin Islands), with citizenry at times identical and at times distinct from their own. Template:Clarify span but may nonetheless be treated as a separate "country of origin" in international trade, as Hong Kong is.

A few states consist of a union of smaller polities which are considered countries:

* The Kingdom of the Netherlands includes four separate constituent countries (Template:Lang-nl): Netherlands, Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten.
* The United Kingdom includes the four countries England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The Crown Dependencies and the Overseas Territories, which are not part of the UK itself, Template:Fact span
* The Danish Realm consists of Denmark proper and its two autonomous territories: the Faroe Islands and Greenland.

## Country classification

Several organizations seek to identify trends in order to produce country classifications. Countries are often distinguished as developing countries or developed countries.

**The United Nations**

The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs annually produces the *World Economic Situation and Prospects* report that classified states as developed countries, economies in transition, or developing countries. The report classifies country development based on per capita gross national income. Within the broad categories, the United Nations identified subgroups based on geographical location or ad hoc criteria. The UN outlines the geographical regions for developing economies as Africa, East Asia, South Asia, Western Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean. The 2019 report recognizes only developed countries in North America, Europe, and Asia and the Pacific. The majority of economies in transition and developing countries are found in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean.

The UN additionally recognizes multiple trends that impact the developmental status of countries in the *World Economic Situation and Prospects*. The report highlights fuel-exporting and fuel-importing countries, as well as small island developing states and landlocked developing countries. It also identifies heavily indebted poor countries.

**The World Bank**

The World Bank also classifies countries based on GNI per capita. Using the *World Bank Atlas method*, it classifies countries as low-income economies, lower-middle-income economies, upper-middle-income economies, or high-income economies. For the 2020 fiscal year, the World Bank defines low-income economies as countries with a GNI per capita of $1,025 or less in 2018; lower middle-income economies as countries with a GNI per capita between $1,026 and $3,995; upper middle-income economies as countries with a GNI per capita between $3,996 and $12,375; high-income economies as countries with a GNI per capita of $12,376 or more.

It also identifies regional trends. The World Bank defines its regions as East Asia and Pacific, Europe and Central Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East and North Africa, North America, South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Lastly, the World Bank distinguishes countries based on the operational policies of the World Bank. The three categories include International Development Association (IDA) countries, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) countries, and Blend countries.

## See also

Template:Portal

* City network
* Constituent state
* List of sovereign states and dependent territories by continent
* Lists of countries and territories
* List of former sovereign states
* Princely State
* Micronation

## References

1. ↑ Jones, J. (1964). *What Makes a Country? Human Events*, **24**(31), 14.
2. ↑ Template:Cite AustLII
3. ↑ Rosenberg, Matt. Geography: Country, State, and Nation.Template:Unreliable source?
4. ↑ The World Factbook. CIA.
5. ↑ World Population Clock: 7.8 Billion People (2020) - Worldometer (en).
6. ↑ OED, Country
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Template:Cite encyclopedia
8. ↑ List of Countries, Territories and Currencies
9. ↑ UNGEGN World Geographical Names
10. ↑ Country codes/names
11. ↑ Countries: Designations and abbreviations to use Text was copied from this source, which is © European Union, 1995-2018. Reuse is authorised, provided the source is acknowledged.
12. ↑ Made In The British Crown Colony. *Thuy-Tien Crampton*.
13. ↑ Matchbox label, made in Hong Kong. *delcampe.net*.
14. ↑ Carrhart Made In Hong Kong?. *ContractorTalk*.
15. ↑ Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The Danish Parliament - EU Information Centre (15 January 2020).
16. ↑ World Economic and Situation Prospects 2019. The United Nations.
17. ↑ How does the World Bank classify countries?. The World Bank.

## Further reading

* Defining what makes a country *The Economist*

## External links

Template:Sister project links

* The CIA World Factbook
* Country Studies from the United States Library of Congress
* Foreign Information by Country and Country & Territory Guides from GovPubs at UCB Libraries
* United Nations statistics division

Template:Lists of countries and territories by continent

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