How Many Countries Have You Visited? Here's How to Count Them

Counting countries sounds simple, but what actually counts? Layovers? Cruises? Territories? Here's how travellers count, how most people compare, and how to work out your number.

The Question Every Traveller Gets Asked

"How many countries have you been to?" It's the ultimate travel question. But answering it isn't as straightforward as it seems: two people with the same passport stamps can give different numbers, depending on what they count as a visit and which list of countries they use.

This guide covers both, shows how most people compare, and walks through counting your own number in about five minutes.

What Counts as "Visiting" a Country?

This is where travellers disagree. Here are the most common approaches:

The Strict Rule

You need to have spent at least one night in the country. Airport layovers and drive-throughs don't count. This is the most respected counting method among serious travellers.

The Moderate Rule

You count it if you left the airport and experienced something meaningful: had a meal, visited a landmark, walked through a neighbourhood. A 6-hour layover where you explored the city? That counts.

The Liberal Rule

If your feet touched the ground in that country, it counts. Even if you just changed planes and walked through the airport terminal. Hey, you were technically there.

Our Take

There's no wrong answer, but we lean toward the moderate rule. The point of travelling is experiencing places, not collecting passport stamps. Whatever you choose, the one thing that matters is using the same rule for every country, so your number means something when you compare it.

The Tricky Cases

Most countries are easy. These are the ones people argue about:

Airport layovers: don't count under the strict or moderate rule. If you passed immigration and went into the city, the moderate rule counts it.
Cruise stops: a day ashore in a port counts under the moderate rule. Staying on the ship doesn't count under any rule except the most liberal.
Day trips over a border: crossing from Singapore into Malaysia, or from Croatia into Bosnia and Herzegovina, for an afternoon counts under the moderate rule, as long as you did more than turn around.
Driving through: a motorway transit without stopping is usually left out. Stopping for a meal moves it into moderate territory.
Childhood trips: most travellers count them, even if they remember little. Some only count trips they remember; again, pick one rule.
Microstates: Vatican City, San Marino, Monaco and Liechtenstein are easy to visit in a day from a neighbouring country, and they count as countries in their own right.

How Many Countries Are There?

Another surprisingly tricky question, because different lists count different things:

List	How many	What it counts
UN members and observers	195	193 member states plus Vatican City and Palestine
ISO 3166 country codes	249	Countries plus territories such as Greenland, Puerto Rico and Hong Kong
Travelers' Century Club	330	Countries, territories and some regions counted separately

Most travel apps, including VOIA, count the 195. It is the list people mean when they say "countries", and it keeps your number comparable with other travellers'.

What About Territories?

Places like Puerto Rico, Greenland, Hong Kong and the Faroe Islands aren't sovereign countries, but they feel like distinct destinations. Count them separately rather than in your country number. VOIA tracks territories on their own, so a trip to Puerto Rico shows on your map without inflating your count.

What Is the Average Number of Countries Visited?

There is no worldwide figure, but surveys give a good idea. In Agoda's Well Traveled Survey, run by YouGov in 2019 across 11 markets, people from the UK had visited 12 countries on average and Australians 10, while respondents in Vietnam, China and Indonesia averaged two. Across all 11 markets, 18% had never been to another country, and 68% had visited 10 countries or fewer (source).

So the answer depends heavily on where you live. Europeans, with many countries a short trip away, tend to rack up numbers quickly; travellers from large countries like the US, China or Indonesia often see a lot of the world without leaving home.

What's a Good Number?

A rough scale, based on those averages:

1-10 countries: You're getting started, and you're in the same range as most people.
10-25 countries: A solid traveller, above the average even in the UK.
25-50 countries: Experienced. You probably have strong opinions about airlines.
50-100 countries: Dedicated. Travel is clearly a major part of your life.
100+: Rare company. The Travelers' Century Club only admits people who have reached 100 of its 330 destinations.

But remember: it's not a competition. Someone who spent a month deeply exploring Japan has richer travel experiences than someone who speed-ran through 30 countries in 30 days.

A Worked Example

Say your travels so far include a week in Portugal, a road trip through France and Spain, a cruise with a stop in Morocco, a Dubai layover where you never left the airport, an afternoon in Monaco, and a family holiday in Italy when you were six.

Strict rule: Portugal, France, Spain and Italy. That's 4.
Moderate rule: add Morocco (a day ashore) and Monaco (an afternoon exploring). That's 6.
Liberal rule: add the United Arab Emirates for the layover. That's 7.

Same trips, three honest answers. Pick the rule you'd be comfortable explaining, and use it every time.

How to Count Yours in Five Minutes

Start with the obvious: list the trips you remember, country by country.
Check your passport: stamps catch the trips you forgot, though not travel inside open-border areas like the Schengen zone.
Scroll your photos: your phone records where most photos were taken, so your camera roll is a map of your travels.
Search your email: flight and hotel confirmations fill the gaps in years without photos.
Put them on a map: our free visited countries map gives you your count and percentage of the world as you pick, with no account, and lets you download the map as an image to share.

How to Keep Your Count Up to Date

Once you have your number, the hard part is keeping it current. In VOIA you add a country by searching for it and tapping it, with dates if you know them. On iPhone, VOIA can also find visits in your photos: it reads where and when each photo was taken, right on your phone, and you approve every visit before it is added.

Your count and percentage of the world update as you go, and you can see where you rank among friends by countries visited. For a breakdown by continent and city, My Stats is part of VOIA Premium.

For other methods, from scratch maps to spreadsheets, see how to track your visited countries, or compare the options in the best apps to track countries visited.

Start Counting Today

Take five minutes right now to think through every country you've visited. Most people have been to more countries than they first remember. Once you have your list, put it on a map and watch it fill up.

VOIA Travel is available free on the App Store and Google Play.