All 18 countries that start with M
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
 Madagascar | Antananarivo | Africa | The world's fourth largest island, off Africa's southeast coast, home to species found nowhere else on Earth. |
 Malawi | Lilongwe | Africa | A narrow, landlocked country in southeastern Africa dominated by Lake Malawi, one of the African Great Lakes. |
 Malaysia | Kuala Lumpur | Asia | Split between a peninsula and part of the island of Borneo, with Putrajaya as its administrative seat near Kuala Lumpur. |
 Maldives | Male | Asia | An Indian Ocean nation of roughly 1,200 coral islands, the lowest lying country on Earth. |
 Mali | Bamako | Africa | A landlocked West African country, most of it Sahara desert, home to the historic city of Timbuktu. |
 Malta | Valletta | Europe | A small archipelago in the Mediterranean south of Sicily, one of the most densely populated countries in Europe. |
 Marshall Islands | Majuro | Oceania | A Pacific nation of atolls once used for United States nuclear testing, now a close US defense partner. |
 Mauritania | Nouakchott | Africa | A largely desert West African country on the Atlantic coast, historically home to nomadic Moorish herders. |
 Mauritius | Port Louis | Africa | A volcanic Indian Ocean island, the last known home of the dodo before it went extinct in the 17th century. |
 Mexico | Mexico City | North America | The most populous Spanish speaking country in the world, sharing nearly 2,000 miles of border with the United States. |
 Micronesia | Palikir | Oceania | A Pacific nation of over 600 islands, officially the Federated States of Micronesia. |
 Moldova | Chisinau | Europe | A small landlocked country between Romania and Ukraine, among Europe's lowest income states by some measures. |
 Monaco | Monaco | Europe | A tiny city state on the French Riviera, the world's second smallest country after Vatican City. |
 Mongolia | Ulaanbaatar | Asia | A vast, sparsely populated country between Russia and China, the historical heartland of Genghis Khan's empire. |
 Montenegro | Podgorica | Europe | A small Balkan country on the Adriatic, independent from a union with Serbia since a 2006 referendum. |
 Morocco | Rabat | Africa | A North African kingdom facing both the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, separated from Spain by a narrow strait. |
 Mozambique | Maputo | Africa | A long Indian Ocean coastline in southeastern Africa, a former Portuguese colony independent since 1975. |
 Myanmar | Naypyidaw | Asia | A Southeast Asian country renamed from Burma by its military government in 1989; both names remain in wide use. |
Where the eighteen M countries sit
Africa carries the biggest share: Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, and Mozambique, seven countries in all, more than a third of the letter. Asia holds four, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, and Myanmar, spread from the Himalayas to the South China Sea. Europe has four as well: Malta, Moldova, Monaco, and Montenegro, none of them large, and two of them, Malta and Monaco, among the smallest countries in the world by area. Oceania contributes two low lying island nations, the Marshall Islands and Micronesia, and Mexico stands alone as the letter's only country in the Americas.
Size varies about as widely as geography does. Mexico is the letter's giant, with well over 100 million people, while Monaco fits its entire population into roughly two square kilometers, smaller than most city parks. Mongolia occupies the opposite extreme on land: a country the size of Western Europe with one of the lowest population densities anywhere, most of its people concentrated in and around the capital, Ulaanbaatar.
Naming edge cases worth knowing
Myanmar was known as Burma until its military government renamed it in 1989. The change was never universally accepted, so both names still appear in everyday use and in official documents from different countries; this dataset lists it as Myanmar with Burma kept as an alias, so a search for either name finds the same entry. Micronesia's full name, the Federated States of Micronesia, is worth knowing because Micronesia is also the name of a much larger region of the Pacific containing several other countries and territories, including Palau and the Marshall Islands, none of which are part of this particular country.
Quick facts
- Eighteen countries start with M, more than any other letter in this batch of seven.
- Seven of the eighteen, over a third, are in Africa.
- Monaco is the letter's smallest country and the world's second smallest overall, after Vatican City.
- Myanmar was known as Burma until a 1989 renaming; both names remain in use today.