All Countries on Earth & Countries I've Visited

I'm often asked: "How many countries are there and how many of them have you visited?"

Here both questions are answered in detail, with links to maps, the CIA factbook, and Wikipedia for each country.

The summary table integrates country lists from: the United Nations, the Travelers Century Club (TCC), a leading organization for serious travelers, and MostTraveledPeople.com. Countries are grouped by TCC regions.

By any measure, I am one of the top travelers in the world.
     I am a Life Member of the Circumnavigators Club.
     I have visited all 193 members of the United Nations. See my UN journey.
     First to complete the 266 country UN+ list on NomadMania.com on 10 Feb 2017
     The Travelers Century Club awarded me a a high-tech trophy for completing their travel list.

     I was ranked #1 on MostTraveledPeople.com (MTP) on November 2, 2013.
     And I was ranked #1 for about 80% of the time for the next 9 years and 2 months.
     On December 31, 2022 I was named the #1 ranked MTP Pioneer in the MTP Shrine
     Basically I won the first round of MTP existence from 2005 thru 2022.

The MTP list was increased from 1013 to 1500 locations by incorporating the NomadMania regions in January 2023.

Most Traveled People (MTP)

For the extreme traveler, www.mosttraveledpeople.com (MTP), has a list of the "1013 countries, territories, autonomous regions, enclaves, geographically separated island groups, and major states and provinces of the world."

The MTP list is the best tool to rank travelers because it includes and builds on the TCC list which in turn includes and builds on the list of UN member states. No one has visited all MTP locations.

MTP in addition to having more travel locations than TCC (1013 vs. 330) was a pioneering effort for systematic travel. Travelers can easily keep track of their places visited by ticking them off and the website calculates how many places they have visited by country, by region and in total. The website also ranks travelers automatically. MTP is a free club open to all travelers. Other innovations have been added over the years.

On November 2, 2013, I was ranked #1 in the world and this continued 80% of the time until the end of 2022. At that point I was #1 on MTP and will now be forever the #1 ranked MTP pioneer in the Shrine.

At the beginning of 2023 Charles Veley in close cooperation with Harry Mitsidis, the Founder of Nomad Mania, increased the MTP list by incorporating all of Nomad Mania's regions. This increased the MTP list from 1013 to 1500.

In 2005 MTP started with 573 locations. The initial MTP list was created by rationally amagamating all of the existing travel lists. then over the years the MTP list was increased from additions of new TCC locations, addition of various island groups or individual islands. Also there was a period of about 3 years where various additions were made from Nomad Mania. Thus in January 2023 the increase in the MTP list was the completion of a long process greatly benefitting from Nomad Mania's constant tuning and refinements.

It is fun to know that the nice round number of 1500 locations on MTP was the result of the process and not a predetermined number.

Nomadmania (NM)

The newest travel list for extreme travelers is nomadmania.com. The NM website is a well organized information source with traveler photos, dynamic maps and links. Like MTP, NM is a free club open to all travelers.

NM is more extensive than MTP, with 1301 regions compared to MTP's 1013 locations, but MTP is more difficult and has more members. Thus MTP remains the benchmark for ranking competitive travelers.

NM is a better fit than MTP for travelers who are also visiting UN World Heritage Sites (WHS). An excellent way to get a good feel for a country is to visit all of its NM regions and WH Sites.

NM is a pioneer in formal verification of travelers. Travelers, who have their visits to UN states verified, are identified with an icon. Travelers can earn a second icon by having their NM regional claims verified.

The master traveller list on NM can be sorted to give the ranking for other lists. Notice that I am tied for first on the UN list (all 193 visited) & UN+ list (all 266 visited), and am first on the TCC list (all 330 visited).
I was the first person to complete all three of these lists on NM.

UNESCO World Heritage Sites

It has been a pleasure to visit a significant number of the 1154 UN World Heritage Sites.
There is an informative page listing all of my visits to these natural and cultural treasurers.
In fact, it is a planning resource for all travelers with links to practical tips.

Some Articles on Don Parrish

On June 7, 2014, The Daily Herald published an interview with me: Downers Grove Man is Most Traveled.
See interview Don Parrish at 70: What Fuels History's Most Traveled Man - Page 1 and Page 2.
On June 1, 2015, BBC Travel named me as one of their six Travel Pioneers for 2015.
On June 15, 2015, Charles Osgood, the long-time CBS reporter, had a radio commentary on my travels.
On September 9, 2015, my interview published in Polish was on the home page of www.onet.pl.
Patricia Amaral published a 2015 video interview with me and 6 other top travelers.
In September 2016, Emirates Magazine's cover story featured me in an article on extreme travel.
Award-winning Die Zeit portrait published in German and English November 2016 to March 2017.
Most Traveled Person story in Chicago Tribune on the Internet and in Print January 1, 2017.
History of Systematic Travel and Essay on who is World's Most Traveled Person (29 October 2017).
World's Most Traveled Man story in the DailyMail.com on November 24, 2017.
World's Most Traveled Man story in The Sun on November 25, 2017.

Some Articles on the Travelers Century Club

I contributed 3 photos to this November 16, 2015 article entitled You've Visited 100 Countries. Join the Club.
This fun article gives a perspective on TCC by past Presidents Pam Barrus and Kevin Hughes.

In December 2019, for the 100th anniversary of Avianca, there was an informative article about TCC. I was featured because I had completed the TCC list, expanded to 329 countries this month. Several other TCC members were interviewed for this Spanish-language article. Possibly one of the best available articles in Spanish on TCC.

Integrated UN & TCC Country List with Info Links

The TCC countries I have visited have a sequence number & year of my initial visit. Country names in bold I have visited multiple times, e.g., 60 visits to Japan. Country names flagged red are more difficult to visit.

I have visited all 330 of the TCC countries. BIOT was the last to be visited on Feb 10, 2017.
On March 11, 2017 I received a high-tech award from the Travelers Century Club's President for completing its list in a ceremony in California. At that time the TCC list had 325 countries.

The details of my visits to MTP locations are shown on mtp.travel. That website also has extensive information on each of the MTP locations including reports and photos from MTP members.