You ' ve got it backwards . The UK is a sovereign state ergo a country . England , Scotland , Wales , and Northern Ireland are regarded as countries but aren ' t sovereign statesso they ' re not really countries . Technically speaking , if you ' re counting world countries , the UK is a country while England , Scotland , Wales , and Northern Ireland are not . Check out the state department or any official list of world countriesthe UK appears as a whole , rather than broken down into its component parts . Bermuda is also actually a country for the same reason it belongs to the UK . Similarly , Greenland and the Faroe Islands are regarded as countries , but they ' re notthey ' re part of Denmark . Edit you can keep down voting me all you want , I ' m still right .