User:EBB/Länder

This page lists the 160 countries and 14 dependent territories I have visited as well as which territories are considered "countries" by my (hopefully reasonable) definition (in total 206 and 50). It additionally lists in some cases the visits of sub-entities of a federation or an international body as well as some other statistics. Furthermore, it contains countries which are scheduled to be visited within a short period of time or are being seriously considered.

Territories that are considered "countries" and "dependencies"
The whole land area of Earth is to be covered by territories considered "countries", therefore visiting a territory which is a dependency of a sovereign state is considered visiting the motherland.

The following 206 territories are considered "countries":

An entry into a dependency (any territory that is listed in the ISO 3166-1 list that does not qualify as a country under the above definition, or the United Kingdom Sovereign Base Areas) will be listed additionally while counting as a visit to the motherland.

The following 50 territories are considered "dependencies":
 * 49 of the 249 territories listed in the ISO 3166-1 list that are not "countries" under the above definition (note that there are a total of six "countries" above that are not included in the ISO list; these are Abkhazia, Kosovo, Northern Cyprus, Somaliland, South Ossetia and Transnistria all of which are not included for political reasons),
 * the United Kingdom Sovereign Base Areas

So there are 206 countries and an additional 50 dependencies, making up a total of 256 entities that are tracked.

Additionally, an entry into a country's sub-entity that controls immigration separately from the mainland is listed as well. Subjects of international law in their own right who own property which was granted extraterritoriality by the host state (but who have no sovereignty over any part of their property) are tracked as well.

Unless otherwise noted, an entry into a country with dependencies was into its mainland (motherland).

Regarding which country is actually visited
In case two countries (according to the rules) claim the same point of a territory the following rules apply:
 * When the two countries basically claim the same territory overall (e.g. China and Taiwan, North and South Korea), the country visited is determined per the government which actually controls the visited territory.
 * When one country basically claims the whole territory of another country but not vice versa (e.g. Cyprus claiming Northern Cyprus, Serbia claiming Kosovo) visiting the territory claimed by both means visiting the latter country even if that territory is controlled by the former country.
 * When two countries claim the same territory (but there are parts of each country not claimed by the other, e.g. parts of Kashmir being claimed by China, India and Pakistan) the country visited is determined per the government which actually controls the visited territory.

Regarding divisions and mergers of countries
After a merger of countries (e.g. of West and East Germany) the new country is considered to have been visited if any of the formerly independent countries had been visited. If entries into several of the formerly independent countries took place, the numbering is changed accordingly (with the first entry into any of the formerly independent countries counted as the first entry into the merged country).

After a division of a visited country (e.g. of Serbia and Montenegro) every country whose territory was actually visited is considered to have been visited if this territory was clearly identifiable at the time of a visit before the split-up (e.g. as a state of a federal state or as a de facto independent state with its own border checks).

In any case merger or division is to be explained by a footnote.

Regarding entry and exit
A first entry into a country is considered to have taken place if a foot or another part of body has touched the soil of a country and an immigration control has taken place (if such is supposed to take place). If formal immigration control is not supposed to take place (e.g. within the Schengen Area) touching the soil of a country is sufficient for first entry into a country. If formal immigration control is in principle supposed to take place but is generally ignored (e.g. in the border area of Brazil/Colombia/Peru) touching the soil of a country - and doing something in the country (eating a meal, drinking a beverage, buying an item etc.) - is sufficient for first entry into a country.

Actually touching the surface is not considered necessary any more for later entries into a country visited or for sub-entities of a visited country.

The date of entry is the local date of the (last of the) following action(s) taking place: (a) having a solid connection to the country's soil ; (b) having legally passed immigration control (if applicable).

The date of exit is the local date of severing the solid connection to the country's soil, under the condition that an entry into that country according to the above rules had taken place before.

Fourteen-day challenge
The challenge is to cross an international border on the 14th day after the day of the previous crossing of an international border, i.e. if an international border has been crossed on day 1 (local time, at any time), to keep up the streak an international border must be crossed by 2359 hours on day 15.

An international border is crossed in time when there was an exit or an entry according to the above rules within the required timeframe.

Regarding transits
Transits in countries without entering the country according to the rules above is to be documented, too. There is to be a new list of countries which were visited only in transit. Any being in the jurisdiction of a country while being physically connected to the soil of that country is considered a transit.

Countries (and dependencies) visited, scheduled and seriously considered
Countries in dark green have already been visited whereas light green indicates new countries which are to be visited soon. Orange indicates new countries travel to which is currently being seriously considered or where a transit is scheduled to take place. A dark green boundary around the country's shape indicates a country that was visited only in transit, a light green boundary a country that is scheduled to be visited in transit.

The dying of e.g. Greenland or French Guiana does not necessarily mean that I have visited these entities; it simply means that, in this case, Denmark and France have been visited and that Greenland belongs to Denmark (for the sake of my rules) and French Guiana to France, respectively.

Countries (and dependencies) visited
Unless otherwise noted, the following visited countries qualify (as of today) as United Nations member states. Dependencies are included in this table; they are separately numbered. Khaki background denotes countries which were visited in the current year.

Countries (and dependencies) scheduled to be visited
A country is "scheduled to be visited" if flights or hotel accomodation have been booked or a visa has been granted.

Countries (and dependencies) seriously considered to be visited
A country is "seriously considered to be visited" if flights, hotel accomodation and/or visa procedures have been looked for, there is a travel partner or a person to be visited and/or a more or less fixed time window within the next twelve months has been assessed. A country may also be summarized under this section if it is located very close to a country scheduled to be visited and a short trip to this country is well conceivable. It may also appear here if it is a place of change of flights where there may be enough time to formally enter the country while changing flights.

Countries (and dependencies) visited in airport transit
Airport transit is not considered an entry into the country if there is no immigration control which would otherwise have to take place. This fact is reflected in the list of countries visited during airport transit before visiting them properly according to the rules. Of course, in almost every country there are some minutes of airport transiting in this sense before properly entering the country. Therefore only transits are listed where a proper entry did not take place within 24 hours or before touching another country's soil whichever is earlier. Furthermore, countries are not listed if they were visited in airport transit after having been properly visited earlier.

Countries (and dependencies) not yet visited
See User:EBB/Länder/Missing

Countries (or dependencies) lost
A country (or dependency) is considered lost if it merges with another (previously visited) country, leading to a decrease of the number of countries (or dependencies) visited.

Countries (or dependencies) won
A country (or dependency) is considered won if it emerges from a divide with another (previously visited) country, leading to an increase of the number of countries (or dependencies) visited without (again) setting foot into the country.

Extreme points
The following are the extreme points (in relation to the equator and direction of travel) I have been to (standing on land or being on a ship):

This link leads to my extreme points on the several continents.

Crossing important lines
The following are the dates of crossing important lines. These crossings include crossings in the air.

South of the equator
The following list contains all times during which I have been south of the equator.

Crossing the equator on land
The following list contains all situations during which I crossed the equator on land. If multiple crossings take place at virtually the same place and within a short time frame, they are counted as one crossing.

Longest flights
The longest flight is determined by the grand circle distance as the actual flight route cannot usually be verified.

Longest distance away from my place of birth
The author's place of birth is Freiburg im Breisgau, 🇩🇪.

Nearest to my home town
This list contains the countries which are nearest to my home town in Black Forest, Germany, which have not yet been visited for each point in time. As I still have a legal residence in that Black Forest town which still occasionally serves as a base for travel, this list includes the time until today.

One-day countries and dependencies
There are several countries and dependencies which I have visited only on one single day.

Calender years in which all neighbouring countries of Germany were visited
Red colouring notes the country in which the visits were completed for this year; lightblue and lightgreen colouring notes seriously considered and scheduled visits; khaki colouring notes countries already visited in the current year.

Non-visited countries completely surrounded by visited countries
This listing may include single countries or a bloc of countries which is completely surrounded by visited countries. Countries bordering the ocean cannot be contained in this list. A country which is connected to the ocean by man-made structures (channels etc.) or bordering a lake may be contained.

Countries within a radius around my place of birth
The following list contains all countries that have a point within a radius around my place of birth.

Seeing and taking a bath in the oceans
This table shows the times I have seen or taken a bath in the oceans. "Seeing" means standing on the shores of an ocean, "taking a bath" means at least touching the water surface.

10 degree quadrants of the world
This page lists all quadrants of 10° times 10° I have been to.

World Heritage Sites
This page lists the World Heritage Sites I have been to.

Country rankings
All lists as seen on October 14, 2023. Of the top 25 of the list of countries by population, the three countries not yet visited are 🇳🇬 (no. 6), 🇧🇩 (no. 8) and the 🇨🇩 (no. 16). Of the top 21 of the list of countries and outlying territories by total area (incl. Antarctica!), the three countries not yet visited are Antarctica (no. 2), 🇨🇩 (no. 12) and 🇱🇾 (no. 18). Of the top 25 of the list of countries by future GDP (PPP) estimates for 2026, the one country not yet visited is (no. 22). Of the top 25 of the list of countries by Human Development Index, the one entity not yet visited is 🇭🇰 (no. 4).

Percentages
All lists as seen on February 20, 2014. 160 countries were visited according to the rules. This amounts to about 77.7%, more than three-fourths, of the countries in the world.

Sports matches and venues
This list contains sports matches and venues I have visited.

Christmas trips
Since 2010, Christmas has usually been spent outside of Germany. The place given is the place where the evening of December 24 was spent.

Future travel


Merger and division issues


Recognition issues


Transit issues


Other explanations
