"Oldest country" is one of those questions with several defensible answers. Do you mean the oldest continuously sovereign state, the oldest continuous government, the oldest civilisation, or the oldest surviving borders? Here are the main contenders under each definition.
Oldest continuous sovereign state
San Marino is the usual winner. It dates its founding to 3 September 301 AD, when according to tradition a stonemason named Marinus founded a monastic community on Monte Titano. It has been a self-governing republic ever since, with a written constitution — the Statutes of 1600 — that is the oldest still in force. It has never been absorbed by Italy.
Oldest continuous monarchy
Japan. The imperial line traditionally begins with Emperor Jimmu in 660 BC and has continued without a dynastic break to the present emperor — the oldest hereditary monarchy in the world by a wide margin, even if the earliest emperors are legendary rather than historical.
Oldest civilisations with continuity to a modern state
- Egypt — a unified state from around 3100 BC, though with many changes of ruler and long foreign rule; the modern Arab Republic is very different from the pharaohs, but the territorial and cultural thread is ancient.
- China — traces state organisation to the Xia and Shang dynasties around 2000–1600 BC, with the Qin unification of 221 BC often taken as the start of the continuous imperial state.
- Iran (Persia) — an imperial power since Cyrus the Great founded the Achaemenid Empire in 550 BC, and continuously a distinct polity since.
- Greece — the cultural and linguistic continuity runs to Mycenaean times, though the modern Greek state dates only from 1830.
- Ethiopia — one of the oldest continuously independent countries in Africa, with the Kingdom of Aksum flourishing from the 1st century AD and the Solomonic dynasty ruling from 1270 to 1974.
Oldest in Europe after San Marino
France and England are often cited, with continuous statehood from the 843 Treaty of Verdun and the 927 unification respectively. Denmark's monarchy runs unbroken from Gorm the Old in the early 900s, making it the oldest continuous monarchy in Europe. Portugal has had essentially the same land borders since 1297 — the oldest fixed borders in Europe.
For the opposite end of the timeline — South Sudan, Montenegro, Timor-Leste — see the newest-countries guide.
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