There is no strict legal cutoff, but a microstate is generally understood as a country under a few hundred square kilometres, or under a few hundred thousand people, that is nonetheless fully independent and widely recognised — usually a UN member.
The European five (plus the Vatican)
- Vatican City — 0.49 km²; the seat of the Catholic Church, an absolute elective monarchy under the Pope, and the last territorial remnant of the Papal States that once ran across central Italy.
- Monaco — 2 km²; a constitutional principality on the French Riviera ruled by the Grimaldi family since 1297; the most densely populated country in the world and famous for its casino, harbour and Grand Prix.
- San Marino — 61 km²; a landlocked republic surrounded by Italy, on and around Monte Titano; it claims to be the world's oldest surviving sovereign state and republic, traditionally founded in 301 AD.
- Liechtenstein — 160 km²; a constitutional principality between Switzerland and Austria; one of only two doubly landlocked countries; among the highest GDP per capita anywhere.
- Andorra — 468 km²; a co-principality in the Pyrenees whose two heads of state are the President of France and the Bishop of Urgell in Spain — the only country with this arrangement.
They survived the era when large states were absorbing small ones because each was too tiny, too poor, or too awkwardly placed to be worth annexing, and later because a neutral micro-neighbour turned out to have diplomatic and financial uses. All five now use the euro (Monaco, San Marino, Vatican City and Andorra by agreement; not being EU members) or the Swiss franc (Liechtenstein).
Beyond Europe
- Pacific — Nauru (21 km²), Tuvalu (26 km²), the Marshall Islands (181 km²), Palau (459 km²), the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, and by some definitions Tonga and Samoa.
- Caribbean — Saint Kitts and Nevis (261 km², the smallest sovereign state in the Americas), plus Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Lucia, Dominica and Barbados.
- Indian Ocean — the Maldives (300 km²) and the Seychelles (452 km²).
- Mediterranean — Malta (316 km²).
How microstates make a living
With little land and few resources, microstates specialise. Common strategies: finance and low taxes (Liechtenstein, Monaco, Andorra historically), tourism and gambling (Monaco, Malta, the Caribbean states), niche exports like stamps and coins (San Marino, Vatican City), citizenship or residency programmes, licensing an internet domain (Tuvalu's .tv, historically), and — for some Pacific states — fishing-licence fees and development aid.
The bottom of the countries-by-area ranking is almost entirely microstates — European enclaves and Pacific and Caribbean islands.
See the smallest →