Microstates.html

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This article is about political geography. For the specific configuration of particles of a material in statistical mechanics, see microstate (statistical mechanics).

Not to be confused with micronation.

The world's five smallest sovereign states: Vatican City, Monaco, Nauru, Tuvalu and San Marino, shown in the same scale for size comparison

A microstate or ministate is a sovereign state having a very small population or very small land area, but usually both. Some examples include Singapore, Liechtenstein, Monaco, and Vatican City. The influence of microstates in the United Nations General Assembly is disproportionately large due to the one state, one vote rule.

The smallest fully sovereign microstate is Vatican City, with 911 citizens as of July 2003 and an area of only 0.44 km²¹. In Rome, Italy, the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM) (not to be confused with Malta, an island microstate in the Mediterranean) is an effectively non-territorial sovereign entity that might also be considered to be a microstate; its sovereignty is recognized by 105 states, 100 of which have entered into full diplomatic relations,² but unlike the Vatican City state, it has no substantive territorial base (the SMOM's only property, its headquarters buildings, holds extraterritorial status, similar to an embassy building). Neither the Vatican nor SMOM are members of the United Nations, although both have permanent observer status at the UN: Vatican City is a "non-member state", SMOM is an "other entity".

Microstates should not be confused with micronations, which are not recognized as sovereign states. Special territories without full sovereignty, such as the Channel Islands, are not considered microstates either.

Contents

1 List of sovereign nations with an area less than 1000 km²
2 List of sovereign nations with fewer than one million people
3 See also
4 References

List of sovereign nations with an area less than 1000 km²

Sovereign states with an area less than 1000 km².³⁴

Rank	Country / Territory	Area (km²)	Location
1	Vatican City	0.44	Southern Europe
2	Monaco	1.95	Southern Europe
3	Nauru	21	Oceania - Micronesia
4	Tuvalu	26	Oceania - Polynesia
5	San Marino	61	Southern Europe
6	Liechtenstein	164	Central Europe
7	Marshall Islands	181	Oceania - Micronesia
8	Saint Kitts and Nevis	261	Caribbean
9	Maldives	298	Southern Asia - Indian Ocean
10	Malta	316	Southern Europe - Mediterranean Sea
11	Grenada	344	Caribbean
12	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	388	Caribbean
13	Barbados	430	Caribbean
14	Antigua and Barbuda	442	Caribbean
15	Seychelles	455	Indian Ocean/Africa
16	Palau	459	Oceania - Micronesia
17	Andorra	468	Southern Europe
18	Saint Lucia	539	Caribbean
19	Singapore	683	Southeast Asia
20	Bahrain	694	Asia - Persian Gulf
21	Federated States of Micronesia	702	Oceania - Micronesia
22	Kiribati	726	Oceania - Micronesia
23	Tonga	747	Oceania - Polynesia
24	Dominica	751	Caribbean
25	São Tomé and Príncipe	964	Central Africa

List of sovereign nations with fewer than one million people

Rank	Country/territory/entity	Population	Date	% of world population	Source
41	Cyprus	855,000⁵		0.013%	UN estimate
40	Qatar	841,000⁶		0.013%	UN estimate
39	Djibouti	833,000		0.012%	UN estimate
38	Fiji	827,900	2007	0.013%	Fiji Islands Bureau of Statistics
37	Guyana	738,000		0.011%	UN estimate
36	Comoros	682,000⁷	July 2007	0.01%	World Gazetteer projection
35	Montenegro	620,000		0.009%	UN estimate
34	Cape Verde	530,000		0.008%	UN estimate
33	Equatorial Guinea⁸	507,000		0.008%	UN estimate
32	Solomon Islands	506,992		0.007%	[2]
31	Luxembourg	483,800	January 1, 2008	0.007%	Le portail des statistiques du Luxenbourg
30	Suriname	458,000		0.007%	UN estimate
29	Malta	407,000		0.006%	UN estimate
28	Brunei	390,000		0.006%	UN estimate
27	Bahamas	331,000		0.005%	UN estimate
26	Iceland	316,252	April 1, 2008	0.005%	Hagstofa Íslands
25	Maldives	306,000		0.005%	UN estimate
24	Barbados	294,000		0.004%	UN estimate
23	Belize	288,000		0.004%	UN estimate
22	Vanuatu	226,000		0.003%	UN estimate
21	Samoa	188,540	2008	0.003%	Samoa Statistics Department
20	Saint Lucia	165,000		0.002%	UN estimate
19	São Tomé and Príncipe	158,000		0.002%	UN estimate
18	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	120,000		0.002%	UN estimate
17	Federated States of Micronesia	111,000		0.002%	UN estimate
16	Grenada	106,000		0.002%	UN estimate
15	Tonga	100,000		0.001%	UN estimate
14	Kiribati	95,000		0.001%	UN estimate
13	Seychelles	87,000		0.001%	UN estimate
12	Antigua and Barbuda	85,000		0.001%	UN estimate
11	Andorra	83,137	December 31, 2007	0.001%	[3]
10	Dominica	67,000		0.001%	UN estimate
9	Marshall Islands	59,000		0.001%	UN estimate
8	Saint Kitts and Nevis	50,000		0.001%	UN estimate
7	Liechtenstein	35,365	December 31, 2007	0.0005%	Statistik Liechtenstein
6	Monaco	33,000		0.0005%	UN estimate
5	San Marino	31,000		0.0005%	UN estimate
4	Palau	20,000		0.0003%	UN estimate
3	Tuvalu	11,000		0.0002%	UN estimate
2	Nauru	10,000		0.0001%	UN estimate
1	Vatican City	900		0.00002%	UN estimate

See also

References

^ CIA - The World Factbook - Holy See (Vatican City)
^ The Order's official website lists them in this table.
^ "CIA - The World Factbook -- Rank Order - Area". CIA. Retrieved on 2008-06-20.
^ "CIA - The World Factbook -- Field Listing - Population". CIA. Retrieved on 2008-06-20.
^ Includes the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (264,172). The Statistical Institute of the Republic of Cyprus shows a population of 749,200 (2004 Census).
^ Figure for Qatari residents only. Estimates for 2008 that include non-resident, transient laborers indicate a population of 1,448,446. From Qatar General Secretariat for Development Planning
^ Excludes the island of Mayotte. The UN estimate is 839,000 (including Mayotte)
^ A 2003 U.S State Department report states the following: "Although the 2002 census estimated the population at 1,015,000, credible estimates put the number at closer to 500,000. The opposition claimed that the Government inflated the census in anticipation of the December presidential election." (...) "Opposition leaders charged earlier in the year that census results showing a twofold population increase were flawed and that numbers were inflated to perpetuate election fraud." [1] The official census figures are available here.

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