microstate

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: Nauru, Singapore, Liechtenstein, Monaco, and Vatican City.

The smallest fully sovereign microstate is Vatican City, with 911 citizens as of July 2003 and an area of only 0.44 km²^[1]. 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" under the name of the atypical international entity of the Holy See, 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.

List of sovereign nations with a non-sea area less than 1,000 km² (386 sq mi)

Sovereign states with a non-sea area less than 1,000 km² (386 sq mi).^[3][4]

Rank	Country / Territory	Area (km²/sqmi)	Location
1	Vatican City	0.44 km2 (0 sq mi)	Southern Europe
2	Monaco	1.95 km2 (1 sq mi)	Western Europe/Southern Europe
3	Nauru	21 km2 (8 sq mi)	Oceania - Micronesia
4	Tuvalu	26 km2 (10 sq mi)	Oceania - Polynesia
5	San Marino	61 km2 (24 sq mi)	Southern Europe
6	Liechtenstein	164 km2 (63 sq mi)	Central Europe
7	Marshall Islands	181 km2 (70 sq mi)	Oceania - Micronesia
8	Saint Kitts and Nevis	261 km2 (101 sq mi)	Caribbean
9	Maldives	298 km2 (115 sq mi)	Southern Asia - Indian Ocean
10	Malta	316 km2 (122 sq mi)	Southern Europe - Mediterranean Sea
11	Grenada	344 km2 (133 sq mi)	Caribbean
12	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	388 km2 (150 sq mi)	Caribbean
13	Barbados	430 km2 (166 sq mi)	Caribbean
14	Antigua and Barbuda	442 km2 (171 sq mi)	Caribbean
15	Seychelles	455 km2 (176 sq mi)	Indian Ocean/Africa
16	Palau	459 km2 (177 sq mi)	Oceania - Micronesia
17	Andorra	468 km2 (181 sq mi)	Southern Europe
18	Saint Lucia	539 km2 (208 sq mi)	Caribbean
19	Bahrain	694 km2 (268 sq mi)	Asia - Persian Gulf
20	Singapore	700 km2 (270 sq mi)	Southeast Asia
21	Federated States of Micronesia	702 km2 (271 sq mi)	Oceania - Micronesia
22	Kiribati	726 km2 (280 sq mi)	Oceania - Micronesia
23	Tonga	747 km2 (288 sq mi)	Oceania - Polynesia
24	Dominica	751 km2 (290 sq mi)	Caribbean
25	São Tomé and Príncipe	964 km2 (372 sq mi)	Central Africa

List of sovereign nations with fewer than 500,000 people

Rank	Country/territory/entity	Population	Date	% of world population	Source
1	Vatican City	900		0.00001%	UN estimate
2	Nauru	10,000		0.0001%	UN estimate
3	Tuvalu	11,000		0.0002%	UN estimate
4	Palau	20,000		0.0003%	UN estimate
5	San Marino	31,000		0.0005%	UN estimate
6	Monaco	33,000		0.0005%	UN estimate
7	Liechtenstein	35,365	December 31, 2007	0.0005%	Statistik Liechtenstein
8	Saint Kitts and Nevis	50,000		0.001%	UN estimate
9	Marshall Islands	59,000		0.001%	UN estimate
10	Dominica	67,000		0.001%	UN estimate
11	Andorra	84,484	2008	0.001%	Andorra Departament d'Estadística
12	Antigua and Barbuda	85,000		0.001%	UN estimate
13	Seychelles	87,000		0.001%	UN estimate
14	Kiribati	95,000		0.001%	UN estimate
15	Tonga	100,000		0.001%	UN estimate
16	Grenada	106,000		0.002%	UN estimate
17	Federated States of Micronesia	111,000		0.002%	UN estimate
18	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	120,000		0.002%	UN estimate
19	São Tomé and Príncipe	158,000		0.002%	UN estimate
20	Saint Lucia	165,000		0.002%	UN estimate
21	Samoa	188,540	2008	0.003%	Samoa Statistics Department
22	Vanuatu	226,000		0.003%	UN estimate
23	Belize	288,000		0.004%	UN estimate
24	Barbados	294,000		0.004%	UN estimate
25	Maldives	306,000		0.005%	UN estimate
26	Iceland	316,252	April 1, 2008	0.005%	Hagstofa Íslands
27	Bahamas	331,000		0.005%	UN estimate
28	Brunei	390,000		0.006%	UN estimate
29	Malta	407,000		0.006%	UN estimate
30	Suriname	458,000		0.007%	UN estimate
31	Luxembourg	483,800	January 1, 2008	0.007%	Le portail des statistiques du Luxenbourg

Historical anomalies and aspirant states

A small number of microstates are founded on historical anomalies or eccentric interpretations of law. These types of microstates are usually located on small (usually disputed) territorial enclaves, generate limited economic activity founded on tourism and philatelic and numismatic sales, and are tolerated or ignored by the nations from which they claim to have seceded.

One example is the Republic of Indian Stream, now the town of Pittsburg, New Hampshire — A geographic anomaly left unresolved by Treaty of Paris that ended the U.S. Revolutionary War, and claimed by both the U.S. and Canada. Between 1832 and 1835, the area's residents refused to acknowledge either claimant.

See also

• European microstates
• List of countries by population
• List of countries and outlying territories by total area
• Micronation
• City state

References