Methodology

How we count countries and draw borders

Every travel map tool has to make decisions that sound simple until you actually try to make them. How many countries are there? What counts as visiting? What do you do about Kosovo? This page explains exactly how we answer those questions.

How many countries does the map show?

My Travel Maps shows 195 countries. This is the 193 member states of the United Nations, plus two observer states that have near-universal recognition and are commonly included in travel counts: the Vatican City (Holy See) and the State of Palestine.

We deliberately do not include territories, dependencies, or autonomous regions (such as French Guiana, Puerto Rico, or the Faroe Islands) as separate countries — they are part of their parent state on our map. If you want to track territories visited, the city pins tool lets you drop a pin anywhere.

What counts as “visited”?

We use the most generous reasonable definition: you have set foot in the country, even briefly. This includes airport transit where you passed through immigration and technically entered the country. It includes a two-hour layover where you left the airport. It does not include being in an international transit zone without clearing customs — but honestly, whether that counts is your decision, not ours. It's your map.

The “want to visit” wishlist layer is entirely your own definition — it's simply a way to mark countries you're planning or dreaming about, with no official meaning attached.

Contested territories and disputed borders

This is where travel mapping gets genuinely complicated. We handle the most commonly disputed cases as follows:

• Kosovo — shown as a separate country. Recognised by over 100 UN member states. Many travelers count it separately and we reflect that.
• Taiwan — shown as a separate country under its ISO code. Widely visited as a distinct destination.
• Palestine — included as one of our 195, as an observer state with near-universal recognition of its status. Shown within its generally recognised boundaries.
• Western Sahara — shown as a distinct territory, not as part of Morocco, following Natural Earth's convention.
• Crimea / contested borders in Ukraine and Russia — we follow the internationally recognised boundaries of Ukraine. We acknowledge that the situation on the ground differs. We update when official international consensus shifts.

We acknowledge that any border representation is inherently a political act, and that reasonable people disagree on many of these cases. Our intent is to reflect the most widely-used conventions for travel purposes, not to make political statements.

Where does our border and map data come from?

Country polygons are sourced from Natural Earth (110m resolution for world overview, 10m for US states), distributed via the world-atlas and us-atlas topojson packages. Natural Earth is a widely-used, public domain dataset maintained by volunteer cartographers and updated regularly.

The map tiles are provided by CartoDB using their Voyager style, built on OpenStreetMap data.

How often do we update?

We monitor Natural Earth releases and update our GeoJSON data when significant changes occur — typically when new countries gain independence or when border changes receive broad international recognition. Minor cartographic refinements are updated with Natural Earth's release cycle (roughly annually).

If you notice a border discrepancy or believe something is incorrectly represented, please contact us. We take these reports seriously and investigate every one.

US states

The US states tool shows all 50 states. Washington D.C. is not shown as a separate state. US territories (Puerto Rico, Guam, etc.) are not shown in the states tool but can be pinned in the city pins tool. State boundaries are from the US Census Bureau TIGER dataset via the us-atlas topojson package.