Visited Countries

The fabulous people at World 66 have created a fun tool that lets you map out how many countries you have visited and which percentage of the world is that. I have visited 23 countries, which is 10% (actually I will actually be visiting South Africa in March, but I figured it would be OK to add it now - hope its not cheating). More than some, less than others. But still not bad considering I'm a puertorican from an average family.


create your own visited country map

In this day and age of globalization, I think we forget sometimes just how big the world has a:

Surface area:	510,065,600 km²
Land area:	148,939,100 km² (29.2 %)
Water area:	361,126,400 km² (70.8 %)

That it is composed of:

• 202 sovereign states:
  • 193 states with general international recognition:
    • 192 member states of the United Nations (UN).
    • 1 state with general international recognition but not UN membership, governed by the Holy See (a UN permanent observer), the Vatican City.
  • 9 states lacking general international recognition, none of which are UN members, that are nonetheless defined as states in the body of customary international law, drawing on the precedent of the Montevideo Convention:
    • 1 state, no longer a UN member since late 1971, recognized by 23 UN member states and the Holy See (Vatican City), and currently with de facto international relations with many others, the Republic of China (commonly referred to as Taiwan).
    • 1 state, recognized by 43 UN member states but never admitted to the UN itself, with most of its claimed territory under Moroccan de facto administration, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic in Western Sahara.
    • 1 state, member of the Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic Conference, recognized by Arab states and some other UN members though never itself a UN member, with no sovereignty over its claimed territories, the State of Palestine in the Palestinian territories.^[2]
    • 6 de facto independent states lacking any significant measure of diplomatic recognition from other states:
      • 1 de facto independent state, diplomatically recognized by no UN member states except Turkey, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.^[3]
      • 5 de facto independent states, namely Abkhazia,^[4] Nagorno-Karabakh,^[5] Pridnestrovie,^[6] Somaliland,^[7] and South Ossetia,^[8] none recognized by any UN member states.
• 36 inhabited dependent territories:
  • 3 external territories of Australia (Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands and Norfolk Island).
  • 2 overseas countries in the Kingdom of Denmark (Greenland and Faroe Islands).
  • 5 overseas territories of France:^[9]
    • 1 sui generis (unique) community (New Caledonia).
    • 4 overseas communities:
      • 1 territorial community (Saint Pierre and Miquelon)
      • 1 territory (Wallis and Futuna)
      • 1 overseas country (French Polynesia)
      • 1 departmental community (Mayotte)
  • 2 overseas countries in the Kingdom of the Netherlands (Aruba and Netherlands Antilles).
  • 3 dependent territories of New Zealand:
    • 2 states in free association with New Zealand (Cook Islands and Niue).
    • 1 overseas territory (Tokelau).
  • 16 dependent territories of the United Kingdom:
    • 3 Crown dependencies (Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man).
    • 13 overseas territories (Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat, Pitcairn Islands, Saint Helena (and its dependencies Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha), Turks and Caicos Islands, and the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia).
  • 5 unincorporated territories of the United States:
    • 2 commonwealths (Northern Mariana Islands and Puerto Rico).
    • 2 organized territories (Guam and U.S. Virgin Islands).
    • 1 de facto organized territory lacking an Organic Act (American Samoa).
• 5 areas of special sovereignty:
  • 4 special entities recognized by international treaty or agreement (Åland in Finland, Svalbard in Norway, as well as the 2 special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China - Hong Kong and Macau).
  • 1 UN-administered territory inside the de jure territory of a sovereign state and under de jure sovereignty of that sovereign state (Kosovo in Serbia under UN interim civilian administration).

As of late 2006, the world population reached 6.5 billion.^[1]. These are grouped into racial and ethnic groups often classified along linguistic lines:

• Indo-European peoples
  • Balto-Slavic peoples
    • Baltic peoples
    • Slavic peoples
      • East Slavs
      • West Slavs
      • South Slavs
  • Indo-Iranian peoples
    • Indo-Aryan peoples
    • Iranian peoples
    • Nuristani peoples
    • Dardic peoples
  • Germanic peoples
  • Celtic peoples
  • Romance peoples
  • Other Indo-European peoples (including Albanians, Greeks, and Armenians)
• Caucasian peoples
  • South Caucasian peoples
  • North Caucasian peoples
    • Northwest Caucasian peoples
    • Nakh peoples
    • Northeast Caucasian peoples
• Uralic peoples
  • Samoyedic peoples
  • Finno-Ugric peoples
    • Finnic peoples
    • Ugric peoples
• Altaic peoples
  • Turkic peoples
  • Mongolian peoples
  • Tungusic peoples
• Chukotko-Kamchatkan peoples
• Afro-Asiatic peoples
  • Semitic peoples
  • Kushitic peoples
  • Chadic peoples
  • Berber peoples
  • Omotic peoples
  • Egyptian peoples
• Niger-Kordofan peoples
  • Niger-Congo peoples
    • Benue-Congo peoples (including Bantu)
    • Kwa peoples
    • Gur peoples
    • Western Atlantic peoples
    • Mande peoples
    • Adamawa-Eastern peoples
  • Kordofan peoples
• Nilo-Saharan peoples
• Khoisan peoples
• Dravidian peoples
• Sino-Tibetan peoples
  • Chinese peoples
  • Tibeto-Burman peoples
• Hmong-Mien peoples
• Tai peoples
• Austro-Asiatic peoples
• Austronesian peoples
  • Formosans
  • Malay peoples
    • Malaysian Malay peoples
  • Chamic peoples
  • East Timorese peoples
  • Filipino peoples
  • Indonesian peoples
    • Malagasy peoples
  • Pacific Islanders
    • Melanesians
    • Micronesians
    • Polynesians
• Papuan peoples
• Australian peoples
• Eskimo-Aleut peoples
• Na-Dene peoples
• Amerind peoples (several thousand ethnic and linguistic groups)
• Other peoples (including Japanese, Koreans, Basque, Burusho, Ainu, Nivkhs, Andamanese, Ket, Yukaghir, Nihals, Mbugu, Tasmanian Aborigines)

Ethnologue lists about 7,330 main languages in its language name index and distinguishes about 39,491 alternate language names and dialects.

So where does globalization fit into this picture. I for one, just want to try to explore it all, see it all, experience it all before I run out of time. It's a big world outhere.