2026 AP HUMAN GEOGRAPHY EXAM ... TUESDAY, MAY 5. WILL YOU BE READY?
If a cartoon figure can know where all the countries of the world are, then so can you! Now that we know where each state in the world is located, the next thing we have to consider in the study of political geography are the questions of "What makes a country a country?" and "What are the different types of countries?".
Within our lifetime, the number of countries has grown considerably. Fifty years ago, there were only about 50 sovereign states in the world. Today, we have 193 states or countries in the world with East Timor being the most recent addition when it became a sovereign state in May of 2002. Of these, 189 are members of the United Nations (Switzerland, the most recent addition, finally joined in May, 2002).