List of sovereign states by date of formation

Below is a list of sovereign states with the dates of their formation (date of their independence or of their constitution), sorted by continent.

This list includes the 195 states which are currently member states of the United Nations or non-member observer states with the United Nations General Assembly. This does not include extinct states, but does include several states with limited recognition.

For proposed states or various indigenous nations which consider themselves still under occupation, see list of active autonomist and secessionist movements.

Nation-building is a long evolutionary process, and in most cases the date of a country's "formation" cannot be objectively determined; e.g., the fact that England and France were sovereign kingdoms on equal footing in the medieval period does not prejudice the fact that England is not now a sovereign state (having passed sovereignty to Great Britain in 1707), while France is a Republic founded in 1870 (though the term France generally refers to the current French Fifth Republic government, formed in 1958).

Around 60 countries gained independence from the United Kingdom throughout its history, the most in the world, followed by with around 40 countries that gained independence from France throughout its history. Over 50% of the world's borders today, were drawn as a result of British and French imperialism.

An unambiguous measure is the date of national constitutions; but as constitutions are an almost entirely modern concept, all formation dates by that criterion are modern or early modern (the oldest extant constitution being that of San Marino, dating to 1600).



Independence dates for widely recognized states earlier than 1919 should be treated with caution, since prior to the founding of the League of Nations, there was no international body to recognize nationhood, and independence had no meaning beyond mutual recognition of de facto sovereigns (the role of the League of Nations was effectively taken over by the United Nations after the Second World War). See also: disputed territories.

Many countries have some remote (or fantastically remote) symbolic foundation date as part of their national mythology, sometimes artificially inflating a country's "age" for reasons of nationalism, sometimes merely gesturing at a long and gradual process of the formalizing national identity. Such dates do not reflect the formation of a state (an independent political entity).

The following list contains the formation dates of countries with a short description of formation events. For a more detailed description of a country's formation and history, please see the main article for that country.

Asia

 * Table notes

Europe

 * Table notes :

Sortable list
In this list, "date of last subordination" refers to the last date of control by an external government. The list shows large groupings associated with the dates of independence from decolonization (e.g. 41 current states gained control of sovereignty from the United Kingdom and France between 1956 and 1966) or dissolution of a political union (e.g. 18 current states gained control of sovereignty from the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia between 1990 and 1992). In other cases, a sovereign state submitted to foreign military occupation or political subjugation for a period of time and later regained its independence (e.g. 6 current states gained control of sovereignty from Nazi Germany between 1944 and 1945).

Dates refer to de facto rule or occupation of the major territory, whether or not legitimized by international recognition.

In a union such as Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union, or the Kalmar Union, one of the constituents can be considered the dominant power – generally where the seat of government was located. The United Kingdom is a particularly complicated case. If England is viewed as the dominant member, then history can be traced from Roman conquest, Saxon invasions, 10th-century unification, and the 1066 Norman Conquest before the union of England and Scotland in 1707. However, if viewed from a Scottish perspective, an unbroken history of sovereignty can be traced from unification in 843 through the 1707 union with England (with a brief annexation by England from 1657 to 1660). Some Scots view the 1707 union as a ceding of sovereignty to England.

There are cases where a state is completely extinguished or abolished without having any successor states. Cases like this occur when, for example, one state is annexed or conquered by another and ceases to exist even in nominal form (i.e. not even a "government in exile" is established). The most recent case in human history is the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), which was completely abolished after the German reunification. Modern Germany is a continuation of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), it is not a successor state.

The Holy Roman Empire is not considered a state by modern historians, but a political entity bringing together several sovereign states in a confederation.

The concept of sovereign state should not be confused with that of nation (for example there are even stateless nations). This list has the date of creation of current sovereign states but not of nations. The historiography of some nations, such as the Bulgarians, even separates the different states founded by these nations (for example First, Second and Third Bulgarian State)