List of entities and changes in The World Factbook

Cover of The World Factbook.

This is a list of entities and changes in The World Factbook. The World Factbook is an annual publication of the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States with almanac-style information about the countries of the world.

As of July 2011, The World Factbook consists of 267 entities. These entities can be divided into categories. These categories are:

• Independent countries
• Others
• Dependencies and Areas of Special Sovereignty
• Miscellaneous
• Other entities

After the list of entities, there is a table that lists entities that have been dropped, added, renamed, or consolidated in The World Factbook.

List of entities

The list of entities follows below. The names and flags of entities are as listed in the Factbook and may differ from other sources.

Independent countries

This is a list of independent countries. The CIA defines an independent country as people "politically organized into a sovereign state with a definite territory". In this category, there are 195 entities:

Flag of entity	Name of entity	Flag of entity	Name of entity	Flag of entity	Name of entity	Flag of entity	Name of entity
	Afghanistan		Albania		Algeria		Andorra
	Angola		Antigua and Barbuda		Argentina		Armenia
	Australia		Austria		Azerbaijan		Bahamas, The
	Bahrain		Bangladesh		Barbados		Belarus
	Belgium		Belize		Benin		Bhutan
	Bolivia		Bosnia and Herzegovina		Botswana		Brazil
	Brunei		Bulgaria		Burkina Faso		Burma
	Burundi		Cabo Verde		Cambodia		Cameroon
	Canada		Central African Republic		Chad		Chile
	China		Colombia		Comoros		Congo, Democratic Republic of the
	Congo, Republic of the		Costa Rica		Cote d'Ivoire		Croatia
	Cuba		Cyprus		Czech Republic		Denmark
	Djibouti		Dominica		Dominican Republic		Ecuador
	Egypt		El Salvador		Equatorial Guinea		Eritrea
	Estonia		Ethiopia		Fiji		Finland
	France		Gabon		Gambia, The		Georgia
	Germany		Ghana		Greece		Grenada
	Guatemala		Guinea		Guinea-Bissau		Guyana
	Haiti		Holy See (Vatican City)		Honduras		Hungary
	Iceland		India		Indonesia		Iran
	Iraq		Ireland		Israel		Italy
	Jamaica		Japan		Jordan		Kazakhstan
	Kenya		Kiribati		Korea, North		Korea, South
	Kosovo		Kuwait		Kyrgyzstan		Laos
	Latvia		Lebanon		Lesotho		Liberia
	Libya		Liechtenstein		Lithuania		Luxembourg
	Macedonia		Madagascar		Malawi		Malaysia
	Maldives		Mali		Malta		Marshall Islands
	Mauritania		Mauritius		Mexico		Micronesia, Federated States of
	Moldova		Monaco		Mongolia		Montenegro
	Morocco		Mozambique		Namibia		Nauru
	Nepal		Netherlands		New Zealand		Nicaragua
	Niger		Nigeria		Norway		Oman
	Pakistan		Palau		Panama		Papua New Guinea
	Paraguay		Peru		Philippines		Poland
	Portugal		Qatar		Romania		Russia
	Rwanda		Saint Kitts and Nevis		Saint Lucia		Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
	Samoa		San Marino		Sao Tome and Principe		Saudi Arabia
	Senegal		Serbia		Seychelles		Sierra Leone
	Singapore		Slovakia		Slovenia		Solomon Islands
	Somalia		South Africa		South Sudan		Spain
	Sri Lanka		Sudan		Suriname		Swaziland
	Sweden		Switzerland		Syria		Tajikistan
	Tanzania		Thailand		Timor-Leste		Togo
	Tonga		Trinidad and Tobago		Tunisia		Turkey
	Turkmenistan		Tuvalu		Uganda		Ukraine
	United Arab Emirates		United Kingdom		United States		Uruguay
	Uzbekistan		Vanuatu		Venezuela		Vietnam
	Yemen		Zambia		Zimbabwe

Others

This is a list of other places set apart from the list of independent countries. There are two entities in this category:

Flag of entity	Name of entity
	Taiwan
	European Union

Dependencies and Areas of Special Sovereignty

This category is a list of places affiliated with another country. They may be subdivided into categories using the country they are affiliated with:

Flag of entity	Name of entity
Australia: six entities
	Ashmore and Cartier Islands
	Cocos (Keeling) Islands
	Coral Sea Islands
	Heard Island and McDonald Islands
	Christmas Island
	Norfolk Island
China: two entities
	Hong Kong
	Macau
Denmark: two entities
	Faroe Islands
	Greenland
France: eight entities
	Clipperton Island
	French Southern and Antarctic Lands
	New Caledonia
	Saint Barthelemy
	Saint Martin
	French Polynesia
	Saint Pierre and Miquelon
	Wallis and Futuna
Netherlands: three entities
	Aruba
	Curacao
	Sint Maarten
New Zealand: three entities
	Cook Islands
	Niue
	Tokelau
Norway: three entities
	Bouvet Island
	Jan Mayen
	Svalbard
United Kingdom: 17 entities
	Akrotiri
	Dhekelia
	Anguilla
	Bermuda
	British Indian Ocean Territory
	British Virgin Islands
	Cayman Islands
	Falkland Islands
	Gibraltar
	Guernsey
	Jersey
	Isle of Man
	Montserrat
	Pitcairn Islands
	Saint Helena, Ascension, and Tristan da Cunha
	South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands
	Turks and Caicos Islands
United States: 14 entities
	Baker Island
	Howland Island
	Jarvis Island
	Johnston Atoll
	Kingman Reef
	Midway Islands
	Navassa Island
	Palmyra Atoll
	Wake Island
	American Samoa
	Guam
	Northern Mariana Islands
	Puerto Rico
	Virgin Islands

Miscellaneous

This category is for Antarctica and places in dispute. There are six entities here:

• Antarctica
• Gaza Strip
• Paracel Islands
• Spratly Islands
• West Bank
• Western Sahara

Other entities

This category is for the World and the oceans. There are five oceans and the World (the World entry is intended as a summary of the other entries ) :

• Arctic Ocean
• Atlantic Ocean
• Indian Ocean
• Pacific Ocean
• Southern Ocean
• World

Changes in The World Factbook

This table lists changes in the entities in the Factbook. Entities that have been added are in green; dropped entities are in red; the flag last used by the entity is shown as well. Entities that have changed their name are in blue; entities that have been redirected and consolidated into another entry are in purple.

Name of entity		Date change was made	Comments	Reference
	Antarctica	1988	one of more than 40 entities added to the Factbook in order to provide a complete picture of the world
	Arctic Ocean
	Atlantic Ocean
	Indian Ocean
	Pacific Ocean
	World
	Soviet Union	1992	dropped
	Yugoslavia
	Iraq-Saudi Arabia Neutral Zone
	Armenia		replaced the Soviet Union in the Factbook
	Azerbaijan
	Belarus
	Estonia
	Georgia
	Kazakhstan
	Kyrgyzstan
	Latvia
	Lithuania
	Moldova
	Russia
	Tajikistan
	Turkmenistan
	Ukraine
	Uzbekistan
	Bosnia and Hercegovina		replaced Yugoslavia in the Factbook
	Croatia
	Macedonia
	Serbia and Montenegro
	Slovenia
	Czechoslovakia	1993	dropped after the country splits into the Czech Republic and Slovakia
	Czech Republic		added after Czechoslovakia splits
	Slovakia
	Eritrea		added upon independence from Ethiopia
	Vatican City		renamed Holy See (Vatican City)
	Ivory Coast		renamed Cote d'Ivoire
	Macedonia	1994	renamed The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
	Pacific Islands, Trust Territory of the (Palau)	1995	renamed to Palau
	Kazakhstan	1996	renamed Kazakstan; spelling changed
	Burkina		renamed Burkina Faso
	Corsica		added
	Zaire	1997	renamed Congo, Democratic Republic of the
	Congo		renamed Congo, Republic of the
	Corsica		dropped
	Western Samoa	1998	renamed Samoa
	Kazakstan		renamed Kazakhstan; spelling change
	Wake Island	1999	renamed Wake Atoll
	Wake Atoll	2000	renamed Wake Island
	Southern Ocean		added
	Serbia and Montenegro	2001	renamed Yugoslavia
	East Timor	January 1, 2002	added
	Yugoslavia	March 19, 2003	renamed Serbia and Montenegro
	Macedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of	November 30, 2004	renamed Macedonia after a November 2004 decision to refer to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia as such
	Akrotiri		added because both Akrotiri and Dhekelia are dependencies and not lease areas
	Dhekelia
	European Union	December 16, 2004	added due to the fact the European Union has nation like qualities
	Man, Isle of	January 10, 2006	renamed Isle of Man
	Baker Island	March 29, 2006	redirected and consolidated in United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges entry
	Howland Island
	Jarvis Island
	Johnston Atoll
	Kingman Reef
	Midway Islands
	Palmyra Atoll
	United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges		a consolidation of the entries for Baker Island, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, Midway Islands, and Palmyra Atoll
	Serbia and Montenegro	June 13, 2006	dropped due to independence of Montenegro
	Serbia	June 29, 2006	added due to independence of Montenegro
	Montenegro
	Bassas da India	September 7, 2006	consolidated in Iles Eparses entry
	Europa Island
	Glorioso Islands
	Juan de Nova Island
	Tromelin Island
	Iles Eparses		a consolidation of the entries for Bassas da India, Europa Island, Glorioso Islands, Juan de Nova Island, and Tromelin Island
	French Guiana	January 18, 2007	dropped because the area is now an Overseas region and a part of France proper
	Guadeloupe
	Martinique
	Reunion
	Saint Barthelemy	July 19, 2007	added due to the fact the area is now an Overseas collectivity of France
	Saint Martin
	Bassas da India		dropped because the area is now part of the Iles Eparses district of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands
	Europa Island
	Glorioso Islands
	Juan de Nova Island
	Tromelin Island
	Iles Eparses
	East Timor		renamed Timor-Leste due to a decision of the US Board on Geographic Names (BGN) to use the latter instead of the former
	Kosovo	February 28, 2008	added
	South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands	September 1, 2009	renamed South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands
	Saint Helena	January 15, 2010	renamed Saint Helena, Ascension, and Tristan da Cunha
	Netherlands Antilles	October 12, 2010	dropped after the Netherlands Antilles dissolves.
	Curacao	October 20, 2010	added after the Netherlands Antilles dissolves
	Sint Maarten
	Mayotte	April 8, 2011	dropped because the area is now an Overseas department and a part of France proper
	South Sudan	July 11, 2011	added following independence from Sudan
	Cape Verde	January 7, 2014	renamed to Cabo Verde

Notes

^A Kosovo is the subject of a territorial dispute between the Republic of Kosovo and the Republic of Serbia. The Republic of Kosovo unilaterally declared independence on 17 February 2008, but Serbia continues to claim it as part of its own sovereign territory. The two governments began to normalise relations in 2013, as part of the Brussels Agreement. Kosovo has been recognised as an independent state by 108 out of 193 United Nations member states.

^B These entities have been consolidated into the United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges entry.

^C On April 27, 1992, Serbia and Montenegro, the final two republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY), formed a new nation, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY). Until 2001, the U.S. Government did not recognize the FRY as a state. The U.S. government also decided not to accept the FRY or any the other republics as a successor state to the SFRY.

See also

• The World Factbook

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the CIA World Factbook.

External links

• The World Factbook website
• The World Factbook Change Log Detailed changes within the CIA's World Factbook

• (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/608DXHJ52)
• - Since Corsica is not listed in the Entities section of the Notes and Definitions, it is assumed that Corsica was dropped.
• (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/5th2lSDR7)
• (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/5tg9OIPKi)
• (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/5tg9oCW4Y)
• (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/5tgA0OSbl)
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• (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/5tg9oCW4Y)
• (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6MjBNW9o0)