Do territories count as countries on a travel list?

What is a territory?

A territory is a place that belongs to or is administered by another state. Wikipedia describes a dependent territory as an area that does not have full political independence or sovereignty and is subject to a state that is its sovereign. Many have their own governments, flags, currencies or passports, and many are far from the country that governs them.

That is why they are hard to classify on a travel list. Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the United States. Greenland is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark. Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China. Each feels like its own destination, and none holds a UN seat.

If you have ever stood in one and wondered whether to tick a new country, you have met the problem. The same question comes up for Gibraltar, the Faroe Islands, French Polynesia and dozens of other places that run their own affairs while belonging to a larger state.

Why do travelers disagree about them?

There are two honest views. One says a country is a sovereign state, and a territory is part of one. On that view, a trip to Puerto Rico adds nothing to your count, since you have already been to the United States, or you have not. The other view says a place is what it feels like on the ground. Hong Kong is a different trip from mainland China, and a list that merges them hides something real.

Both are consistent. The mistake is mixing them, by counting Greenland but not Guam, or by counting a territory when it helps your total and skipping it when it does not. Chosen rules are fair, and rules chosen on the day are not. A good test is to imagine a stranger reading your list: could they predict, from your rule alone, which places you ticked?

Which approach is easiest to defend?

The separate tally. Your main number stays on the plain list of 195 UN-based countries, and the territories are a second number next to it. A reader sees 38 countries plus 6 territories and knows exactly what they are looking at. Nobody can say you inflated the total, and nobody can say you ignored the island you loved. It also scales well. If you add ten territories over the next decade, your headline figure does not jump and your comparisons with friends remain valid.

The strict option is also easy to defend but throws away information. The include option is hardest, because the total no longer matches any standard list. Travelers who use it often say so clearly, such as 70 countries and territories, and that wording is fine.

What about places that are disputed?

Disputed places are a different question. A territory has a clear parent state. A disputed area has competing claims, and any choice about it is political. The neutral approach is to leave those areas out of the count and mark them without a name.

Inkpass takes that approach. Selectable countries follow the UN list. Areas with a disputed status appear in one neutral hatch on the map, with no name and no count. Places whose sovereignty is not contested, such as Puerto Rico or Greenland, are treated as territories. The shading is not a statement about any border.

If your trip took you to one of these places, record it in your own notes. The app keeps its own list neutral, and your notes can say what you saw.

How does Inkpass handle territories?

A switch in counting rules called Count territories separately gives places such as Puerto Rico, Greenland and Guam their own stamps in the album. They appear as a separate figure beside your country count and never change it. If you switch the setting off, the territory stamps are hidden, and the country count stays the same.

The percentage of the world is figured from the UN list alone, so territories can never push it past what the 195 allow. Antarctica, which is not a country, can be stamped too. It counts as a continent but not toward the country total.

Historic stamps, such as the USSR or Yugoslavia, have their own switch and never change the count. They are there for the album, not for the arithmetic.

How do I describe my number to others?

Say the list and the rule in one breath. A few examples show the pattern:

• 41 countries, UN list, territories separate.
• 41 countries and 7 territories.
• 48 countries and territories combined, my own rule.
• 41 countries, 7 territories, layovers excluded, October 2026.

What if I want to compare with someone who counts differently?

Look at the base. If the other person includes territories in the total, subtract them before you compare, or add yours. The part that matters is whether the two numbers are built from the same list. Agreeing on a setup before you compare saves an hour of arguing. It also turns a debate into a game: you each count both ways, compare the numbers on each list and see where you differ. Often the person with the smaller country total turns out to have visited more territories, and the picture is richer than either figure.

The guide to comparing travel maps with friends explains how an overlap works when two people use different rules, and the article on how many countries are in the world shows where the other lists come from.