Talk:Country

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Countries

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Countries, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of countries on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.CountriesWikipedia:WikiProject CountriesTemplate:WikiProject Countriescountry

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Politics Mid‑importance

	Politics portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Politics, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of politics on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.PoliticsWikipedia:WikiProject PoliticsTemplate:WikiProject Politicspolitics
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Ethnic groups Low‑importance

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Ethnic groups, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of articles relating to ethnic groups, nationalities, and other cultural identities on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Ethnic groupsWikipedia:WikiProject Ethnic groupsTemplate:WikiProject Ethnic groupsEthnic groups

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Wales - never a country

Please give reference to when Wales was a country. 41.243.30.10 (talk) 19:21, 3 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Please give reference to when Wales was a country. Francis Hannaway (talk) 19:29, 3 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

See Talk:Wales/Archive country poll - Wales is a country per long-standing Wikipedia consensus. —Ganesha811 (talk) 20:03, 3 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

It is a definite Wikipedia weakness when people can vote to change a legal definition. I would imagine that only Welsh editors voted. Whatever next? Francis Hannaway (talk) 10:41, 4 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Is there a legal definition? —Tamfang (talk) 23:48, 20 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

There is no legal definition—there's barely even a universal definition—of what is and what isn't a country. OhDidgeridoo (talk) 14:25, 30 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Good Article - help welcome

I am going to attempt to get this article to GA status (given The wub's generous prize offer here) and would welcome collaborative efforts from anyone else interested. —Ganesha811 (talk) 22:28, 6 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

To do:

Eliminate low-quality sources, replace with high-quality sources
Consider what comprehensive coverage looks like
Clean up redundancies, unclear writing
More etymology
More history

—Ganesha811 (talk) 14:11, 7 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

To revert

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

To reinstate "Often, a country is presumed to be identical with a collection of citizens. Sometimes, people say that a country is a project, or an idea, or an ideal. Occasionally, philosophers entertain more metaphysically ambitious pictures, suggesting that a country is an organic entity with its own independent life and character, or that a country is an autonomous agent, just like you or me. Such claims are rarely explained or defended, however, and it is not clear how they should be assessed. We attribute so many different kinds of properties to countries, speaking as though a country can feature wheat fields waving or be girt by sea, can have a founding date and be democratic and free, can be English speaking, culturally diverse, war torn or Islamic.". It's within {{blockquote}} and taken directly from a published source, but Treetoes023 had altered its text regardless. 85.215.201.79 (talk) 06:23, 11 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Done small jars tc 11:39, 11 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Maps?

I am confused as to why articles about countries do not contain maps. There is usually a map showing the location in the world, but no actual map of the country itself. This seems very weird to me. What is the reasoning here? 77.158.245.187 (talk) 03:17, 12 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Do you have some examples? Most country articles contain multiple maps. CMD (talk) 03:25, 12 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Palestian is now officially UN member

International recognition of the State of Palestine

So they should be red in the second map now

Hungcesner (talk) 14:23, 15 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Read the article you link to: "The effort to secure full UN membership was renewed in 2024 during the Israel–Hamas war,[91] with the United Nations Security Council holding a vote on the topic in April.[92] While the vote was 12 in favor, two abstentions, and one vote against, the United States vetoed the measure so it did not pass.[79]

On May 10, 2024, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution that recognized that Palestine met the requirements for UN membership, and requested that the Security Council reconsider admitting the state. It also granted Palestine additional rights at the UN, including being seated with member states, the right to introduce proposals and agenda items, and participate in committees, but did not grant them the right to vote.[93][94]"

Palestine is NOT "now officially UN member" and is unlikely to be one for some time at least (US veto in the Security Council). Johnbod (talk) 16:30, 15 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

NPOV problem with map

The map we currently use next to the lede has WP:NPOV problems considering that it's made by CIA Factbook, which relies on U.S. recognition of countries at the time. That leads to Kosovo having the country marking, Taiwan having a unique marking, and Palestine not being listed at all (albeit it being a UN non-member observer state). At the very least it should be made clear in the map's description that it's made by the CIA (which I will mark now). However, I think that we should find another map entirely, as the description is becoming overlong. AG202 (talk) 21:50, 21 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Any map of countries will show a particular bias in one way or another. Attribution is a good idea, but any other map will also have to be similarly attributed in the caption. (Interestingly, the map supposedly from 2021 appears to show the Golan Heights as part of Syria not Israel, despite the 2019 recognition.) CMD (talk) 00:53, 22 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

This use of "country" seems misleading - Please address

The characterization of a "country" in the below quote (below the dashed line) from this page seems misleading and sounds like it must have been a misunderstanding by non native English speakers. No one would actually think of "big sky country" or "coal county" as actual countries. Perhaps this is best thought as a word play, a metaphor actually, that exaggerates the status of a region, defined by a given trait, as its own country to highlight the singular uniqueness and uniformity of character in regard to that trait. That is, it's because such a region is certainly not a country that such a metaphor then works. And perhaps, instead or in addition, it could be said that "country" is being used in the sense of the adjective, "country", for a rural area and/ or the associated more rural cultural character.

Areas much smaller than a political state may be referred to as countries, such as the West Country in England, "big sky country" (used in various contexts of the American West), "coal country" (used to describe coal-mining regions in several sovereign states) and many other terms Countwiki (talk) 04:05, 19 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

World map image

I am bringing this up to the talk page to discuss which world map is best suited for this page. I have implemented two world maps, but both got reverted. Here are some possible images I think would be good contenders for this page.

Please comment below which image you think is best. Interstellarity (talk) 00:47, 23 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Considering this is about political entities ...map should be about political entities ... as in one that names them.... not a Looney tunes map....and one that discusses the entities in this article. Moxy🍁 01:42, 23 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Moxy If that's the case, then I'd support using the UN map below. Interstellarity (talk) 11:02, 23 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]