Countries That Start With S: All 26, Listed

All 26 countries that start with S

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
Saint Kitts and Nevis	Basseterre	North America	A twin island federation in the Caribbean, the smallest sovereign state in the Americas.
Saint Lucia	Castries	North America	A volcanic island in the Eastern Caribbean, known for its twin Piton peaks.
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	Kingstown	North America	A chain of Caribbean islands stretching south from Saint Vincent toward Grenada.
Samoa	Apia	Oceania	A Polynesian island nation, the first country to see each new day until it shifted the date line in 2011.
San Marino	San Marino	Europe	A microstate on Italy's Apennine peninsula, one of the smallest countries in the world.
Saudi Arabia	Riyadh	Asia	The largest country on the Arabian Peninsula, home to Islam's two holiest cities.
Senegal	Dakar	Africa	A West African country that surrounds The Gambia on three sides.
Serbia	Belgrade	Europe	A landlocked Balkan country, the largest by population in the former Yugoslavia.
Seychelles	Victoria	Africa	An archipelago of 115 islands off East Africa, the smallest country on the continent.
Sierra Leone	Freetown	Africa	A West African country on the Atlantic, recovering from a civil war that ended in 2002.
Singapore	Singapore	Asia	A city state at the tip of the Malay Peninsula, one of the world's busiest ports.
Slovakia	Bratislava	Europe	A landlocked Central European country that split peacefully from Czechoslovakia in 1993.
Slovenia	Ljubljana	Europe	A small Alpine country on the Adriatic, the first former Yugoslav republic to join the EU.
Solomon Islands	Honiara	Oceania	A Pacific archipelago east of Papua New Guinea, the site of major Second World War battles.
Somalia	Mogadishu	Africa	A Horn of Africa nation with the longest coastline on the African mainland.
South Africa	Pretoria	Africa	The only country with three capital cities, one each for the executive, legislative, and judicial branches.
South Korea	Seoul	Asia	A East Asian peninsula nation, officially the Republic of Korea, divided from the north since 1948.
South Sudan	Juba	Africa	The world's newest country, independent from Sudan since 9 July 2011.
Spain	Madrid	Europe	A Western European country on the Iberian Peninsula, sharing it with Portugal and tiny Andorra.
Sri Lanka	Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte	Asia	An island nation off India's southern tip, formerly known as Ceylon.
Sudan	Khartoum	Africa	A Northeast African country that lost roughly a quarter of its territory when South Sudan split off in 2011.
Suriname	Paramaribo	South America	South America's smallest country by population, and a former Dutch colony.
Sweden	Stockholm	Europe	The largest Nordic country by area and population, neutral through both world wars.
Switzerland	Bern	Europe	A landlocked Alpine country with four national languages and a tradition of armed neutrality.
Syria	Damascus	Asia	A Levantine country whose government changed hands in December 2024 after over a decade of civil war.
São Tomé and Príncipe	São Tomé	Africa	A two island nation in the Gulf of Guinea, Africa's second smallest country.

Naming edge cases worth knowing

Sao Tome and Principe is alphabetized here as Sao Tome and Principe, written with its Portuguese accents as Sao Tome e Principe, and stays under S rather than being split by its "and." South Korea's formal UN name is the Republic of Korea, and South Sudan is filed as its own country rather than as a region of Sudan, since it has held UN membership in its own right since 2011. "Saint" is spelled out in full for the three Caribbean states above rather than abbreviated to "St.", matching how the UN itself lists them.

Quick facts

Twenty six countries start with S, the largest letter group of the 195 UN member and observer states.
Nine of the 26 are in Africa, more than any other continent on this list.
South Africa is the only country with three capital cities.
South Sudan, independent since 2011, is the youngest country in the world.
Three of the 26 are Caribbean "Saint" states: Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

Common questions

How many countries start with the letter S?

Twenty six countries start with the letter S, more than any other letter. They range from Saint Kitts and Nevis to Syria, out of the 195 states the United Nations recognizes as members or observers.

Why are there so many "Saint" and "Sao" countries?

Several Caribbean islands, including Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, kept the Catholic saint names given by early European navigators. Sao Tome and Principe, in the Gulf of Guinea, follows the same pattern in Portuguese: Sao Tome means Saint Thomas.

Is South Korea's official name different from South Korea?

Yes. South Korea's official name at the United Nations is the Republic of Korea. "South Korea" is the common short form used almost everywhere outside formal diplomatic documents, and this list uses that common form.

Which S country has three capital cities?

South Africa has three capital cities: Pretoria is the executive seat, Cape Town holds the legislature, and Bloemfontein is the judicial capital. It is the only country on this list, and one of very few in the world, with that arrangement.

Which S country is the world's newest?

South Sudan is the world's newest country, having declared independence from Sudan on 9 July 2011 and joined the United Nations five days later as its 193rd member state.

Countries that start with S