How Do I Count How Many Countries I Have Visited?

Which list of countries should I use?

Nobody keeps one official list of “countries”, so totals differ from person to person. These are the lists you meet most often:

• UN members. The United Nations has 193 member states and two non-member observer states, the Holy See and Palestine. Most people who say “I have visited 50 countries” mean this kind of list, sometimes with the two observers added.
• Traveler clubs. The Travelers’ Century Club counts countries and territories, including places that are distinct geographically, ethnically or politically even though they are not sovereign states. Its list has about 330 entries, and counts territories such as American Samoa separately from their parent country.
• Your own list. Some travelers count only sovereign states, others also count overseas territories or disputed places. All of these are valid, as long as you state which one you use when you compare totals.

Does a layover count?

It depends on the rule you choose, and travelers disagree. These are the common conventions, from strictest to loosest:

1. You entered the country and passed border control, for example for a day trip out of the airport.
2. You left the airport, even without a stamp.
3. You set foot there. The Travelers’ Century Club works this way: it asks that you left your aircraft, ship or vehicle and set foot in the territory, however short the visit.
4. Your plane landed there, even if you stayed on board.

Pick one and write it down. If you take many connections, the choice can change your total by several countries. Overflying a country never counts under any of these rules.

What about territories, dependencies and disputed places?

The same trip gives a different total depending on whether Hong Kong, Greenland, Puerto Rico or the Canary Islands count as separate places or as part of their country. If you only want to compare with friends, the UN list is the simplest common ground. If you want a long list to complete, a traveler club list is the one to follow. You can keep two totals: one for sovereign countries and one for everything on a longer list.

How can I keep track?

• A passport and its stamps. They are a nice memory, but not a complete record: many borders no longer stamp, and the European Union’s Entry/Exit System has replaced passport stamping for eligible non-EU travelers.
• A spreadsheet. One row per country, with the first date and the reason for the trip. It is flexible, but you maintain it by hand.
• A map you color in. Good for a quick look, poor for dates and details.
• A flight diary. If you travel mostly by air, your list of flights already contains your countries: the airports tell you where you have been. See how to keep a flight diary.

How does FlightLog count countries?

FlightLog is a flight diary for iPhone, iPad and Android. It counts a country when an airport in that country is the departure or the arrival of a flight in your logbook. Each country is counted once, by its country code, however many flights or airports you have there. A connection counts when you log it as a flight, as an airport you landed at. Countries you reach by train, car or boat are not included, because FlightLog works from flights.

The number appears in your statistics alongside distance, time in the air, airports, airlines and routes, and your visited countries are shown on a map. Every country also gets a stamp on the flight passport, and the passport uses the same definition as the counter.

You do not need to retype old trips: import a file from another app such as Flighty or myFlightradar24, scan boarding passes, or forward your booking emails. To see where you have been, read how to see all your flights on a map.