Microstate

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

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.

A microstate or ministate is a sovereign state having a very small population or very small land area, but usually both. Some examples include Liechtenstein, Malta, Monaco, Nauru, Singapore, and Vatican City.

The smallest fully sovereign microstate is Vatican City, with 829 citizens as of July 2010 and an area of only 0.44 km².^[1][2]

Microstates should not be confused with micronations, which are not recognized as sovereign states. Special territories without full sovereignty, such as the British Crown Dependencies, The Chinese Special Administrative Regions and overseas territories of Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom, are also not considered microstates.

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)	Region
1	Vatican City	0.44 km2 (0.17 sq mi)	Europe
2	Monaco	1.95 km2 (0.75 sq mi)	Europe
3	Nauru	21 km2 (8 sq mi)	Oceania
4	Tuvalu	26 km2 (10 sq mi)	Oceania
5	San Marino	61 km2 (24 sq mi)	Europe
6	Liechtenstein	160 km2 (62 sq mi)	Europe
7	Marshall Islands	181 km2 (70 sq mi)	Oceania
8	Saint Kitts and Nevis	261 km2 (101 sq mi)	Caribbean
9	Maldives	298 km2 (115 sq mi)	Asia - Indian Ocean
10	Malta	316 km2 (122 sq mi)	Europe - Mediterranean Sea
11	Grenada	344 km2 (133 sq mi)	Caribbean
12	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	389 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	452 km2 (175 sq mi)	Africa - Indian Ocean
16	Palau	459 km2 (177 sq mi)	Oceania
17	Andorra	468 km2 (181 sq mi)	Europe
18	Saint Lucia	539 km2 (208 sq mi)	Caribbean
19	Federated States of Micronesia	702 km2 (271 sq mi)	Oceania
20	Singapore	710 km2 (274 sq mi)	Asia
21	Kiribati	726 km2 (280 sq mi)	Oceania
22	Tonga	747 km2 (288 sq mi)	Oceania
23	Dominica	751 km2 (290 sq mi)	Caribbean
24	Bahrain	758 km2 (293 sq mi)	Asia - Persian Gulf
25	São Tomé and Príncipe	964 km2 (372 sq mi)	Africa - Atlantic Ocean

List of sovereign nations with fewer than 500,000 people

Rank	Country/territory/entity	Population	% of world population	Source	Region
1	Vatican City	826	0.00001%	CIA Factbook estimate 2011 [1]	Europe
2	Nauru	9,332	0.0001%	CIA Factbook estimate 2011	Oceania
3	Tuvalu	10,544	0.0002%	CIA Factbook estimate 2011	Oceania
4	Palau	20,956	0.0003%	CIA Factbook estimate 2011	Oceania
5	Monaco	30,539	0.0005%	CIA Factbook estimate 2011	Europe
6	San Marino	31,817	0.0005%	CIA Factbook estimate 2011	Europe
7	Liechtenstein	35,236	0.0005%	CIA Factbook estimate 2011	Europe
8	Saint Kitts and Nevis	50,314	0.001%	CIA Factbook estimate 2011	Caribbean
9	Marshall Islands	67,182	0.001%	CIA Factbook estimate 2011	Oceania
10	Dominica	72,969	0.001%	CIA Factbook estimate 2011	Caribbean
11	Andorra	84,825	0.001%	CIA Factbook estimate 2011	Europe
12	Antigua and Barbuda	87,884	0.001%	CIA Factbook estimate 2011	Caribbean
13	Seychelles	89,188	0.001%	CIA Factbook estimate 2011	Africa - Indian Ocean
14	Kiribati	100,743	0.002%	CIA Factbook estimate 2011	Oceania
15	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	103,869	0.002%	CIA Factbook estimate 2011	Caribbean
16	Tonga	105,916	0.002%	CIA Factbook estimate 2011	Oceania
17	Federated States of Micronesia	106,836	0.002%	CIA Factbook estimate 2011	Oceania
18	Grenada	108,419	0.002%	CIA Factbook estimate 2011	Caribbean
19	Saint Lucia	161,557	0.002%	CIA Factbook estimate 2011	Caribbean
20	São Tomé and Príncipe	179,506	0.002%	CIA Factbook estimate 2011	Africa - Atlantic Ocean
21	Samoa	193,161	0.003%	CIA Factbook estimate	Oceania
22	Vanuatu	224,564	0.003%	CIA Factbook estimate 2011	Oceania
23	Barbados	286,705	0.004%	CIA Factbook estimate 2011	Caribbean
24	Iceland	311,058	0.005%	CIA Factbook estimate 2011	Europe
25	Bahamas	313,312	0.005%	CIA Factbook estimate 2011	Caribbean
26	Belize	321,115	0.005%	CIA Factbook estimate 2011	Central America
27	Maldives	394,999	0.006%	CIA Factbook estimate 2011	Asia - Indian Ocean
28	Brunei	401,890	0.006%	CIA Factbook estimate 2011	Asia
29	Malta	408,333	0.006%	CIA Factbook estimate 2011	Europe - Mediterranean Sea
30	Suriname	491,989	0.007%	CIA Factbook estimate 2011	South America

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 the 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.

Another example is the Cospaia Republic, which became independent through a treaty error and survived from 1440 to 1826. Its independence made it important in the introduction of tobacco cultivation to Italy.

See also

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

References

1. ^ ^{a b} CIA - The World Factbook - Holy See (Vatican City)
2. ^ 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 (the Order's official website lists them in this table). However, unlike Vatican City state, the SMOM has no substantive territorial base (though its headquarters hold 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".
3. ^ "CIA - The World Factbook -- Rank Order - Area". CIA. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2147rank.html. Retrieved 2008-06-20. 
4. ^ (pdf) Demographic Yearbook—Table 3: Population by sex, rate of population increase, surface area and density. United Nations Statistics Division. 2008. http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/products/dyb/dyb2008/Table03.pdf. Retrieved 2011-06-12.