Map: Which Countries are in the European Union in 2023, Which Aren't, and Which Want to Join?

This map and article have been revised and updated to April 2023. No new countries have joined the EU since our last update in 2020, but there are three new candidate countries and one new "potential candidate".

Map by Evan Centanni, from blank map by Ssolbergj. License: CC BY-SA

Map: Finland Joins NATO

Graphic modified by Evan Centanni from this map by Wikimedia user Addicted04 (CC BY-SA).

New NATO Ally: Finland

The northern European country of Finland has been admitted as a full member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Its membership officially went into effect on Tuesday, April 4 after the final paperwork and exchange of documents was completed. Finland is the 31st country to join NATO.

Last week major news outlets incorrectly reported or implied that Finland wouldn't become a NATO member until July, when the organization hopes to welcome both Finland and Sweden to its annual meeting of the member countries' leaders. (Sweden has also applied to join, but its membership is currently being blocked - see below for details.)

How Many Countries Were There in the World in 2023?

There are newer editions of this article available. To find the most recent, view all "How Many Countries in the World" updates!  

This article, originally from 2011, has been revised and updated to March 2023. You can view older versions of the article in our archives. The main update from last year is the so-called Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics no longer claiming to be independent countries.

A world political map published by the US government.

One of the most basic questions for map-lovers is "How many countries are there in the world?" But anyone who just gives you a simple number isn't telling the whole truth. It actually depends a lot on how you define a "country". Here are six of the most common answers, each correct in its own way:

2022: Donetsk & Lugansk People's Republics Stop Claiming Independence

Most of our readers will already have heard of this story last year, but because PolGeoNow is committed to providing a record of all changes to the world's list of countries, and because this aspect of the story hasn't been much discussed, we're still publishing an article about it now. Parts of this article are adapted from our story on Recognition of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics from one year ago.

Actual military/administrative control within the DPR and LPR's claimed borders just before their governments' agreed merger into Russia. This was also roughly their greatest extent of control during the period they claimed to be independent countries, if including territory held by their close ally the Russian military. This map was originally published as part of our subscriber-exclusive September 2022 Ukraine control map report.

Partial Recognition

For eight years, from 2014 to 2022, the so-called Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and Lugansk People's Republic (LPR) said they were independent countries, despite most of the world considering them to be parts of Ukraine. Then late last year, they stopped claiming independence, instead saying they had now become part of Russia, after Russia controversially agreed to take them in. Read on for the full story, explained in plain English...

Ukraine: Map of Russian Control in March 2023 (Subscription)

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Research by Djordje Djukic. Map by Evan Centanni and Djordje Djukic

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In the past month almost all territorial changes in Ukraine have been in favor of Russia, and mostly all within the Donetsk region. Though most of Russia's advances have been too small to show up on our maps, it's made major progress towards capturing the small city of Bakhmut.

See all this and more on the latest update to PolGeoNow's concise, professional Ukraine war control map, which includes a detailed chronicle of changes and events since our previous Ukraine map report of February 21, with sources cited, as well as a close-up map of control within the claimed borders of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics (now claimed to be self-governing regions within Russia).

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Exclusive map report includes:

• Up-to-date illustration of current territorial control in Ukraine, color-coded for the Ukrainian government on one side and the Russian military and allied forces on the other side, with areas of uncertainty indicated. Colorblind accessible.
• Darker color indicating which areas were already under Russian or allied control before the 2022 invasion began
• Lines showing Russia's newly-claimed border after its annexations of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson provinces.
  

• 

  Donbas close-up map
  

  Close-up map of territorial control within the self-proclaimed boundaries of the Donetsk People's Republic and Lugansk People's Republic, which now claim to be part of Russia
• Detailed indication of city-by-city control, including key towns and other locations important to current events
• Locations of recent control changes and other important events, including Bakhmut, Marinka, Pervomaiske, Torske, Potemkin Island, and many more
  
• Detailed timeline of important events and changes to territorial control since February 21, 2023, with links to sources.

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