How to count the countries you have visited (and do layovers count?)
The short answer: there is no single rule. The United Nations has 193 member states, but the big traveller clubs count anywhere from 330 to more than 1,500 places, and they disagree about layovers. Clubs that need you to pass immigration do not count an airport connection; the most generous one counts setting foot anywhere. Rules below are from each club's own pages, checked on 4 October 2026.
Start with 193
The UN has 193 member states; the most recent to join was South Sudan in 2011. UN member states Most people counting “countries” start here, and add places like Greenland, Puerto Rico or Hong Kong as they see fit.
How the clubs count
Travelers' Century Club (TCC): setting foot is enough
The TCC lists 330 countries and territories (its page still dates the list to January 2022). Even a very short stop counts, a port of call or a refuelling stop, as long as you get off and stand on the ground there, though the club says it prefers longer visits. Membership starts at 100. TCC list and rules The page does not say anything specific about transit lounges, so whether an airside connection counts is a judgement call.
Most Traveled People (MTP): you must enter
MTP tracks more than 1,500 regions, plus the UN and TCC lists. Where a border has immigration, you must officially enter through passport control; where borders are open, standing on land inside is enough. There is no minimum time. Its answer on airport connections is no: time in a transit lounge does not count. MTP rules for visits
NomadMania: the airport never counts
NomadMania tracks the 193 UN countries and 1,381 regions (up from 1,301 after a review in May 2026). It is the strictest: a visit that stays at or near the airport does not count, even if you passed immigration, and neither does stepping across a border and straight back. NomadMania minimal visit
So, do layovers count?
- Airside connection, never through immigration: no for MTP and NomadMania; unclear for the TCC.
- Long layover where you went into town: yes for the TCC and MTP; for NomadMania, only if you went well beyond the airport.
- Cruise port of call: yes for the TCC if you went ashore; for MTP if you entered (passing immigration where there is one).
Keeping your own count
Whatever rule you choose, be consistent and keep the evidence: dates, places and how you arrived. That is what TripStow's scratch-off map does from your booking emails. Every country is coloured by how you got there (stayed, flew in and out, docked on a cruise or crossed overland), and airport connections are kept separate and left out of your total unless you switch them on. So your number can follow the rule you prefer.
Want a quick picture first? The free countries visited map needs no account. And if you are choosing an app, here are the best apps to track countries visited, compared with sources.