There is no universally accepted answer as to how many countries in the world there actually are, however the minimum answer is 193 for the 193 United Nations members.[2]
There are multiple organisations that have their own lists of countries, one example being the Travellers Century Club which recognises 330 countries as of January 2022.[3]
Disputed countries
Palestine is classified as a country. However, there is an ongoing dispute over Palestine’s independence with Israel.
There are a number of disputed areas that have declared independence from their parent state and receive limited recognition. For example, Kosovo, Transnistria, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Northern Cyprus, and Somaliland. These are just some of the many examples of territories with limited to no recognition that are sometimes classed as countries.
There is a lot of controversy surrounding the above examples and quite often any of these territories may be counted as countries purely based on opinion. If all of the above were added the list of U.N members there could be anything up to 211 countries.
There are, however, many more territories with unique political circumstances that could also be counted.
Depending on how loosely the dictionary definition for the word country is used there could be many more than 193 countries in the world. The matter is purely subjective depending on varying opinions.
A disputed territory is that territory whose sovereignty is jealously desired by two or more countries. Usually the administration of the territory is carried out by one of the countries that claims sovereignty, while the other country does not recognize the sovereignty over the territory of the other country. This does not usually happen in land or sea areas on which none possesses effective control, such as Antarctica, or only partially.