text: how many countries are there? what's the names of all the countries?   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) recognised 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-recognised 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 recognised state.  look in the following link for names