of special sovereignty" refer to a broad category
of political entities that are associated in some way with
an independent state. "Country" names used in the table of
contents or for page headings are usually the short-form
names as approved by the US Board on Geographic Names and
may include independent states, dependencies, and areas of
special sovereignty, or other geographic entities. There are
a total of 266 separate geographic entities in The World
Factbook that may be categorized as follows:

INDEPENDENT STATES

191 Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua
and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria,
Azerbaijan, The Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados,
Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia
and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria,
Burkina Faso, Burma, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada,
Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China,
Colombia, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Republic of the Congo, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire,
Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti,
Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El
Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia,
Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, The Gambia, Georgia,
Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea,
Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Holy See, Honduras,
Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland,
Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya,
Kiribati, North Korea, South Korea, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan,
Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya,
Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, The Former Yugoslav
Republic of Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia,
Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritania,
Mauritius, Mexico, Federated States of Micronesia,
Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia,
Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, NZ, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria,
Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea,
Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar,
Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint
Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San
Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal,
Serbia and Montenegro, Seychelles, Sierra Leone,
Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Somalia,
South Africa, Spain, Sri