And I find that it takes me less than 10 minutes to locate a suitable spreadsheet on the UN web site, to download it, adapt it to my needs and produce the extract included left. The wonders of modern science. Numbers in thousands but should have been rounded a bit; not impressed that the UN demographers publish figures of this ropiness to the nearest thousand - maybe Dorling had a point when he was having his extended pop at them. Or maybe there is some technical excuse in the unread footnotes. Perhaps these footnotes also throw some light on the 23 millions logged as lost in unspecified places in eastern asia. Is there some dispute about who owns them?
I then find that the UN recognises 233 countries for these purposes, with the Vatican coming bottom of the list, closely followed by St. Helena and the Falkland Islands. The UK does not make it to the top twenty, coming in at 22, closely followed by Myanmar at 24. At the bottom of the upper quartile of the 25 to 75 million sector, otherwise from Nepal to the Islamic Republic of Iran.
On the other hand, three big Muslim countries in the top ten, in aggregate more than half a billion souls, a testimony to the success of the Muslims in spreading east through the mountains and south across the oceans from Arabia, leaving the Christians to rule the roost in the north west.
A long tail with 75 countries with less than a million souls each - from Fiji to the Vatican. What trappings of nationhood do these places waste money on? How many of them have airlines or navies? Maybe presidential palaces is more in their line.
PS: maybe the Venezuelans are having a gentle poke at the Iranians when they style themselves the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Very latin sense of humour. Not to mention the Plurinational State of Bolivia. I forget, if I ever knew, why the standing of Simón Bolivar (aka Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios Ponte y Blanco) is one thing in the one place and something else in the other.
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