Countries That Start With C: All 16, Listed

All 16 countries that start with C

This list counts the 195 states the United Nations recognizes as members or observers, the same 195 the Geography app and its country quiz use, so the total here will never drift from the total anywhere else on this site. Territories, disputed states, and former names are not counted separately, and the count is generated directly from that dataset rather than typed by hand.

Country	Capital	Continent	Context
Cabo Verde	Praia	Africa	A volcanic archipelago off West Africa, whose government adopted the Portuguese form Cabo Verde over Cape Verde in 2013.
Cambodia	Phnom Penh	Asia	A Southeast Asian kingdom home to Angkor Wat, the largest religious monument in the world.
Cameroon	Yaounde	Africa	A Central African country often called Africa in miniature for its range of landscapes and cultures.
Canada	Ottawa	North America	The world's second largest country by area, though most of its people live within 150 miles of the US border.
Central African Republic	Bangui	Africa	A landlocked country at the geographic heart of the continent, among the least developed by income.
Chad	N'Djamena	Africa	A landlocked Sahelian country named for Lake Chad, once one of Africa's largest lakes and now a fraction of its former size.
Chile	Santiago	South America	A narrow South American country stretching over 2,600 miles along the Pacific, rarely more than 150 miles wide.
China	Beijing	Asia	Asia's largest country by land area, and the world's most populous until India overtook it around 2023.
Colombia	Bogota	South America	The only South American country with coastlines on both the Pacific and the Caribbean.
Comoros	Moroni	Africa	A small volcanic archipelago in the Indian Ocean between Madagascar and mainland Africa.
Costa Rica	San Jose	North America	A Central American country with no standing army, abolished by its constitution in 1948.
Croatia	Zagreb	Europe	A crescent shaped Balkan country on the Adriatic, the European Union's newest member, joining in 2013.
Cuba	Havana	North America	The largest island in the Caribbean, a one party socialist state since its 1959 revolution.
Cyprus	Nicosia	Asia	An eastern Mediterranean island divided since 1974 between an internationally recognized south and a north recognized only by Turkiye.
Czechia	Prague	Europe	The short form of the Czech Republic, registered for official international use in 2016.
Côte d'Ivoire	Yamoussoukro	Africa	A West African country whose government asks the world to use the French original rather than the English Ivory Coast.

Where the sixteen C countries sit

Africa leads with six: Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, and Côte d'Ivoire. Asia and North America each hold three, Cambodia, China, and Cyprus in Asia; Canada, Costa Rica, and Cuba in North America. South America contributes two, Chile and Colombia, and Europe two, Croatia and Czechia, both former Eastern Bloc states now inside the European Union.

China and Canada anchor the letter at the largest end, China the letter's most populous country and Canada the second largest country on Earth by land area, though most of its people live close to its southern border. Costa Rica sits at the other extreme in one respect: it has had no standing army since abolishing its military by constitution in 1948, an unusual choice among the sixteen. Côte d'Ivoire, like Benin and Bolivia on other letters, carries two capital cities: Yamoussoukro is the official seat, while Abidjan, the country's largest city, is where the government actually operates.

Naming edge cases worth knowing

Czechia is the short form of the Czech Republic, registered for official international use by the Czech government in 2016; this dataset uses Czechia as the primary name with Czech Republic kept as an alias. Cabo Verde is the country's own preferred form of its name, adopted in place of the English translation Cape Verde in 2013, and both spellings resolve to the same entry here. No country named simply Congo appears on this list: the Democratic Republic of the Congo is filed under D, and the Republic of the Congo is filed under R, each by its full official name, which is why a reader searching for Congo under C will not find either one here.

Quick facts

Sixteen countries start with C, out of the 195 UN member and observer states.
Africa holds six of the sixteen, more than any other continent on this letter.
Neither Congo appears here: DR Congo is filed under D and the Republic of the Congo under R.
Czechia and Cabo Verde are both short or preferred forms adopted by their own governments this century.

Common questions

How many countries start with the letter C?

Sixteen countries start with the letter C: Cabo Verde, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Comoros, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czechia, and Côte d'Ivoire.

Is Czechia the same as the Czech Republic?

Yes. Czechia is the short form name the Czech government registered for official international use in 2016. Czech Republic remains the country's formal long name, and this list treats the two as the same entry.

Why isn't there a country called just Congo on this list?

Because both Congos are filed under their full official names rather than the shortened Congo. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is listed under D, and the Republic of the Congo is listed under R, so neither appears in the C list.

Is Cabo Verde the same as Cape Verde?

Yes. Cabo Verde is the Portuguese form the country's government adopted as its official name in 2013, replacing the English translation Cape Verde. Both names refer to the same island nation off West Africa.

Which C countries are in South America?

Chile and Colombia are the two C countries in South America. Chile runs along the Pacific coast for over 2,600 miles, and Colombia is the only South American country with coastlines on both the Pacific and the Caribbean.

Countries that start with C