Is Vatican City considered a country?

Question

I have a life-long goal of seeing at least 50 countries before I die. I'm behind but I figure I would see most of them over the next 20 years as I get closer to retirement and make my fortune. :-)

Anyway, we will be in Italy this week!! Part of that trip will be four days in Rome and of course, Vatican City.

So before my trip to Italy, I have been to 12 countries. We will only be in Italy and of course, Vatican City. So my question is, will the number of countries I've been to now be 13 or 14?

Or am I just quibbling over a technicality?

Answer 1

Vatican City is recognized as a country. For example the CIA's World Factbook and UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office both refer to it as a country.

What I suggest: count it as a country, but raise your target to 51. Win-win. :-)

Answer 2

Vatican City is generally recognized as a country by most authorities, and has international recognition as such. It may not be a very big country (indeed, it is smaller than the US Pentagon), but it is a country nonetheless.

If your goal is purely on the number of countries reached, then you should definitely count it as one (and you should also visit San Marino while you're at it, which is another enclaved country in Italy).

If your goal is to see a variety of places, however, you may not want to count it as one, since it is very, very small. (If that's your goal, then, I would suggest you revise your goal to perhaps visting at least 1/3 of the countries on each continent, which would almost certainly have you see more).

Answer 3

Vatican City is definitely a country. It is recognized as such in 1929 by a treaty with Italy. It is not a revival of the Papal States. Size doesn't matter for being a country (there is another small country in Italy: San Marino). When you have visited Vatican City, you can say that you have been in the smallest country in the world. It might be the most militarized country in the world as well, because more then 14% of its inhabitants are soldiers or officers of the Swiss Guard. It is for sure the most clerical country in the world. :-)

Answer 4

Imagine you've reached 50 countries, including Vatican City. Would you feel you've achieved your goal? There's the answer to your question. Your opinion is the only thing that matters here.

Personally, I feel England, Scotland and Wales are separate countries, but that Vatican City is just part of Italy. Fortunately, I'm not a diplomat.

Answer 5

In addition to being listed separately in publications like the CIA World Factbook, Vatican City also has its own ISO-3166 domain: .va. The title for 3166 is "Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions", which could imply a subdivision of Italy, except...

The United Nations was a party to Vatican City receiving its own domain, as the UN is represented among the voting members of the ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency, and the UN list of country names lists Vatican City as separate and distinct from any other nation, with no comment indicating it is a territory of, or administered by, another nation; that is the case with Montserrat, Faroe Islands, French Guiana, and numerous others.

The website for Stato della Città del Vaticano, translated as Vatican City State, says:

Vatican City State was founded following the signing of the Lateran Pacts between the Holy See and Italy on February 11th 1929. These were ratified on June 7th 1929. Its nature as a sovereign State distinct from the Holy See is universally recognized under international law.

Article 2 of the Lateran Pact states that

Italy recognizes the sovereignty of the Holy See in the international realm as an attribute inherent in its nature in conformity with its tradition and with the requirements of its mission to the world.

Other nations are landlocked, having no natural borders such as an ocean. Vatican City is simply a nation set within the borders of another nation. You should definitely list Vatican City as a separate nation on your itinerary.

Answer 6

One regularly used definition of a country is whether it's a member of the United Nations. The Vatican is not, it has observer status. However, it most certainly is an independent territory, which probably is a better definition in this context as compared to 'country', anyway. Or, perhaps you should make your objective to visit 50 countries and independent territories.

Related, and again using a slightly different definition of what constitutes a 'country', is the Travelers' Century Club.

Answer 7

yes, why?

1. Has space or territory that has internationally recognized boundaries.
2. Has people who live there on an ongoing basis.
3. Has economic activity and an organized economy. A country regulates foreign and domestic trade and issues money.
4. Has the power of social engineering, such as education.
5. Has a transportation system for moving goods and people.
6. Has a government that provides public services and police power.
7. Has sovereignty. No other State should have power over the country's territory.
8. Has external recognition. A country has been "voted into the club" by other countries. It is the Holy See which maintains international relations; the term "Holy See" refers to the composite of the authority, jurisdiction, and sovereignty vested in the Pope and his advisers to direct the worldwide Roman Catholic Church.

Created in 1929 to provide a territorial identity for the Holy See in Rome, the State of the Vatican City is a recognized national territory under international law.

The Holy See maintains formal diplomatic relations with 174 nations and 68 of these countries maintain permanent resident diplomatic missions accredited to the Holy See in Rome. Most embassies are outside of the Vatican City and are Rome. The other countries have missions located outside Italy with dual accreditation. The Holy See maintains 106 permanent diplomatic missions to nation-states around the world.

The Vatican City/Holy See is not a member of the United Nations. They are an observer.

Thus, the Vatican City does meet all eight criteria for independent country status so we should consider it as an independent State.

Answer 8

Short answer: The Vatican is a country.

Long answer requires understanding that there is a difference between "State" and "Country", but The Vatican qualifies as both anyway.

The Vatican City is a State (the legalistic definition of an independent country), meaning it has full national sovereignty. It makes its own laws, has citizens, some of whom live there permanently, it issues passports, it has an economy and a national bank, it issues currency (the Euro), it has territory (land), it maintains diplomatic relations at State party level with other nations, it has international borders, a national government (in the Vatican's case, a theocratic monarchy), and it is recognised as a State by other States. It maintains post and telephonic services, has (a very limited) public transport system, its own national military service, and so on.

It's important to note that the Vatican city (the national entity) is separate to the Holy See (the religious entity) which maintains its own relationships with other entities.

Also, someone mentioned that The Vatican is the world's smallest country. In fact, that dubious honour goes to Sealand on the basis on having the smallest land area, though not many other States recognise Sealand as sovereign.

And now the extended answer:

The Vatican City also qualifies as a country. Countries do not have to be sovereign. For example, Puerto Rico is a country but not a State because it is administered by the United States, does not regulate its own economy or issue money, enjoys limited domestic autonomy (its capability to make laws is limited by the US federal government), is not recognised by other States as being a State, and so on. In this respect it is similar to other sub-national entities such as Hong Kong (part of China) or England (part of the UK) or the internal states of the United States.

Answer 9

Another argument to support that Vatican City is a country, which nobody mentioned, is that it has its own foreign relations, independent of Italy. For example, Vatican officially recognizes Taiwan as a country (and doesn't recognize PRC), and thus it hosts one of the very few Taiwan Embassies in the world, and the only one in Europe.

Note that Italy does not recognize Taiwan as a country and has no Taiwanese embassy, only the Representative Office.

Answer 10

The crux here is the meaning of the word "country". Several arguments are presented in this thread to justify that Vatican is a country: existence of an ISO-3166 domain, an entry in the CIA factbook, passages from the Lateran Pact, etc.

My preferred definition of a "country" is the following one

You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer. (Frank Zappa)

Vatican does not have a beer. Nor does it have an airline. Hence, Vatican is not a country.