On the lower right hand side of this blog you see a flag counter which records the number of visitors from each country. As of today, this blog has had visitors from 227 different countries. The US, Germany and the UK are the top three countries. (The distribution on my German blog is of course different.) From some countries, like Chad, Guinea-Bissau and North Korea, I have only had one visit so far (hello, Kim Yong-Un!). The latest region to be added to the list was Mayotte on 7 December 2015.
Some smart-ass will say “But there are only 193 countries in the world”, probably referring to the number of UN member states. But of course you don’t need to be a member of the UN in order to be a state; just take the examples of Taiwan or Kosovo. And then there are a number of disputed territories.
In any case, just click on the flag counter on the right hand side to get the details. If you dispute the independence of Kosovo or believe that the Falkland Islands belong to Argentina, you can take your fight to the company that made this flag counter – or discuss it in the comment section below.
More interestingly, the flag counter also lists 15 countries from where my blog has not yet had a single visit.
The countries or regions that are still missing are:
- British Indian Ocean Territory
- Christmas Island – UPDATE: first visitor on 6 August 2017.
- Kiribati – UPDATE: Shortly after publishing this article, I received my first visitor from Kiribati.
- Montserrat
- Nauru – UPDATE: first visitor on 13 June 2016.
- Niue
- Norfolk Island
- Saint Helena
- Saint Pierre and Miquelon – UPDATE: first visitor on 12 May 2020, after I had already been thinking that the list would never become smaller.
- Sao Tome and Principe
- Svalbard
- Tokelau
- Turkmenistan – I thought that would never happen because of the internet censorship, but on 27 November 2017, I had the first visit from Turkmenistan.
- Tuvalu
- Wallis and Futuna
Thinking about how this list will be reduced over time, I have been wondering: “Which country will be the last one to remain on this list?” Where will people refuse to read my writings until the bitter end? Or: where are people so happy that they don’t even think of wasting their time on the internet? – And I decided to make the promise (or threat) that I will visit the country which will be the last remaining one to have ignored my blog and I will then write and report extensively about it.
And because I know you love maps and flags, here is the world map with all the flags of the countries and regions from where I have had readers. Let the geography lesson begin!
The Happy Hermit 
Hahahaha..Mr, Mr, Mr! Its a nice challenge! Enjoy!
If you have a cousin on one of these little islands, please call her and ask her to subscribe to my blog. Thank you!
Hahahah dont worry!! I already called to all my counsins around the world. All them are very touch with your appeal! hehehe
Thank you so much! :)
Great Post.
Thank you!
I am really curious which country I will have to visit in the end.
there are many countries like somalia, western sahara, syria, iran, etc etc who have not visited my blog thus far.
For Somalia and Western Sahara, I also had to wait a long time.
In Iran, many people use proxy servers to circumvent the censorship, so I don’t know if those visits would show under Iran or another country.
i started blogging last year. then on 1st Jan 2016 had to start all over again. I hope somalia and western sahara wake up before 2107.
British Indian Ocean Territories may be an issue because they are mostly uninhabited. Diego Garcia is the only inhabited one. But by American military personnel. And they probably run through American based servers.
Good point. I don’t know how many of these flags are false because serves are put up somewhere else or however this interweb thing works. I have no idea about technology, obviously.
I just read that the original population was moved to Mauritius, the Seychelles and to the UK. But there is interesting litigation going on about the right to return. If this will be the last place on my list, it will be a challenge to visit (and probably expensive).
Fun challenge and nice geography lesson. Good luck in branching out.
Thank you! Please tell all your friends on Niue and on St Helena.
Close to Australia?
Actually, many of the missing islands are close to Australia and New Zealand, yes. Both in the Indian and the Pacific Ocean. So you of all readers should really know these islands from geography class! ;-)
Geography classes were a long time ago. Think I need a brush up course!
Hmm Saint Pierre and Miquelon is very close to here, but I unfortunately dont know anybody there! If I come across someone I’ll send the to you blog! :) I wouldnt get my hopes up though…theres only a few thousand people living there!
Thank you very much!
Or you could take a boat there. ;-)
I noticed that most remaining regions aren’t very populated, so I might still have to wait a long time.
It took a really long time, but this week, I did indeed have the first visitor from Saint Pierre and Miquelon!
But at that speed, it looks like it will take decades to complete the list.
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Internet services for some of these countries might be contracted from providers in neighboring countries, in which case the originating IP address might be associated with the neighboring country instead of the actual country. Or the data source that you are using for your IP address to country mapping might be inaccurate for these small populations.
You might be able to find another data source that correctly maps both of these situations. Or you might be able to research the IP address blocks (currently) in use for each of these countries.
I love how short this list is, that is wonderful traffic exposure!
Oh, that means I’ll probably never get this list own to zero. :-(
But yes, I am also quite amazed by the range of visits, many from countries of which I had frankly never heard before.