Country
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

This article describes country as a type of geographical or political entity. Country may also refer to the countryside or the country music genre, or the 1984 film of that name.

Look up country in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

In political geography and international politics a country is a geographical territory. A dictionary definition would be "the land of a person's birth, residence, or citizenship; a political state or nation or its territory".[1] In common usage, it is used casually in the sense of both nation (a cultural entity; see below) and state (a political entity; see below). Definitions may vary. It is sometimes used to refer to both states and some other political entities.[2], while in some occasions it refers only to State.[3] It is not uncommon for general information or statistical publications to adopt the wider definition for purposes such as illustration and comparison.[4]

This disparity is also reflected in general English usage[citation needed]. Usage within the United Kingdom tend to adopt a wider definition of the word country[citation needed]. Furthermore, the word is also used to refer to the constituent parts of the United Kingdom (see below). In most usages outside the UK[citation needed], however, the term country carries with it strong connotations of political independence[citation needed], and it may be considered politically incorrect by neutral observers to refer to Tibet as a country, for example[citation needed].

There are dozens of non-sovereign territories which constitute geographical countries, but are not sovereign states. Several States have overseas dependencies, with territory and citizenry separate from their own. They are sometimes listed together with States on lists of countries.[4]