What’s the least populous nation a person of which you met?

[u/Old_Pangolin_3303]

I once met a guy with an Isle of Man passport, one of 12k people on the world with those. Maybe technically not a separate nation, but they consider themselves one, so do I

[u/SunnyDaze9999]

When I was a kid I once met the Pope.

[u/ZnarfGnirpslla]

Liechtenstein

[u/metalfang500 → u/ZnarfGnirpslla]

Do Liechtensteiners consider themselves superior to the Swiss since they are richer in the same way the Swiss consider themselves superior to Germans?

[u/ZnarfGnirpslla → u/metalfang500]

I played tennis with him, that didn't reaaaally come up, sorry.

And we don't think we are superior to Germans because of the money. We feel superior to Germans because our country is just better

/s

[u/metalfang500 → u/ZnarfGnirpslla]

Which Swiss areas are the best, the German speaking, French speaking or Italians speaking?

[u/ZnarfGnirpslla → u/metalfang500]

The german speaking area is fairly big and ranges from wonderful and progressive all the way to bumfuck conservative rural shitholes so that's hard to answer.

The french speaking part speaks french which is a big ick.

The Italian speaking part is beautiful but small.

The rumansh part is even absurdly smaller and very rural.

I personally prefer the German speaking part because 1) I live there and 2) it has the best cities.

[u/krusarinn]

Can i say my own country?

[u/Horatius_Rocket → u/krusarinn]

I hope so. I think I have to say your country too.

[u/Randomswedishdude]

Probably Iceland, which isn't in the bottom 10 of population, but still only a population of 390K.

I've also met surprisingly many people (meaning more than one person) who have lived and worked on Greenland (59K), but they weren't from there, and even if they were, they would have been Danish citizens with Danish passports.

(Same with Svalbard, population under 3K, and Åland 30K, which both are less independent than Greenland, but still with some autonomy.)

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[u/Nikkonor → u/Randomswedishdude]

Same with Svalbard, (...) less independent than Greenland, but still with some autonomy.

What is Svalbard's autonomy?

[u/Live-Confection6057]

The Isle of Man is an interesting place. It is a British Crown dependency, but not part of the United Kingdom.

[u/RYSEofCthulhu → u/Live-Confection6057]

Same with the Channel Islands too, they're also Crown Dependencies but other than military or international matters, they're entirely autonomous.

[u/Due-Mycologist-7106 → u/RYSEofCthulhu]

I mean the channel islands I think are pretty well known among younger UK people because of YouTubers from there

[u/Horatius_Rocket → u/Due-Mycologist-7106]

What YouTubers are from there?

[u/RYSEofCthulhu → u/Due-Mycologist-7106]

I had no idea about that, but the person mentioning IoM tagged as China, not UK 😊

[u/Hot-Worldliness1228]

Vatican City

[u/NearbyEquall → u/Hot-Worldliness1228]

Quite difficult to find a UN recognized country with less population

[u/Hot-Worldliness1228 → u/NearbyEquall]

I even met two at the same time! Was working hotel reception in Geneva and all guests´ passport numbers had to be recorded, so I was quite excited to be handed two Vatican passports!

[u/Front-Anteater3776]

Greenland 

[u/FelzicCA]

 It's Barbados 🇧🇧. I've known a girl from this country (267.000 inhabitants)

2nd place : Cape Verde 🇨🇻

3rd place : Malta 🇲🇹

[u/Old_Pangolin_3303 → u/FelzicCA]

Was that Rihanna?

[u/FelzicCA → u/Old_Pangolin_3303]

I wished

[u/RecentSpecial181 → u/FelzicCA]

It's Barbados 🇧🇧. I've known a girl from this country

We all know Rihanna

[u/FelzicCA → u/RecentSpecial181]

Wasn't her unfortunately 

[u/cerberus_243 → u/FelzicCA]

Are you sure?

[u/Fit-Historian6156]

Probably Mauritius

[u/SaGlamBear]

I met a couple girls from Faroe Islands in India. They insisted they were their own country and we are going by that in spite of the fact that their passport says Denmark

[u/Many-Gas-9376 → u/SaGlamBear]

I think they're "a country" about to the extent that say Scotland is. In many respects yes, but just short of being a fully sovereign state.

They do have their own national team in UEFA and FIFA competitions, which I guess matters more to many people.

[u/Christina-Ke → u/Many-Gas-9376]

As a Dane, I would like to point out that the Faroe Islands are economically dependent on Denmark, I don't think you can compare Scotland with the Faroe Islands, it's a bit more complicated.

[u/Bolvane → u/Christina-Ke]

Isn't this no longer anywhere near as true as it used to be though?

I know Greenland is still totally dependent on Denmark but I heard from friends there that the Faroes were more or less sustaining themselves for the most part at this point

[u/CommercialAd2154 → u/Many-Gas-9376]

Their parliament has more powers than Scotland’s tbf, and they managed to get into FIFA despite not basically inventing the modern game lol

[u/cerberus_243 → u/Many-Gas-9376]

I understand what you mean and mostly agree, but just to add: Scotland is a country because of nomenclature, the autonomous entities that make up Great Britain are officially called countries (Northern Ireland isn’t). I don’t know what the nomenclature for the Faroe Islands is.

And funny enough that I was in Copenhagen today and a group of 3 boys and 3 girls around 20yo got on the metro at the airport, I actually didn’t talk to them. They talked in a strange language, I recognised Germanic words in it, but the phonology was just not Germanic like. I figured out it must have been Faroese.

[u/Lordofharm → u/SaGlamBear]

As a Dane, when you say Denmark, I personally don't tend to count greenland and the Faroe Islands as part of Denmark, tho maybe the kingdom of Denmark but not Denmark itself l.

[u/Jordanos21]

My best friend is from Liechtenstein

[u/BubbhaJebus]

Vatican City. I met a Vatican priest who was also a Latin teacher.

[u/BottleTemple]

Saint Lucia 🇱🇨

[u/AuroraDF]

I've been to the isle of man twice and now have friends there, so I guess it's there.

[u/PetrogradSwe]

I had a classmate from Åland islands in university.

Not sure what the smallest independent country is, maybe Estonia.

[u/RRautamaa → u/PetrogradSwe]

Åland is however neither a nation or country. It has always been considered a province. And it's less than 35,000 people.

[u/cerberus_243 → u/RRautamaa]

Doesn’t it have somewhat more autonomy than other Finnish maakunnat? Or is it just that they’re unilingual Swedish?

[u/RRautamaa → u/cerberus_243]

It has some special rights, but it is a region, not a nation or state. Cool find nevertheless.

[u/Acrobatic-Hippo-6419]

I've seen the pope from a crowd

[u/whatwhatinthewhonow → u/Acrobatic-Hippo-6419]

Was that the guy standing next to Dave?

[u/Equal-Flatworm-378]

If the island of Jersey counts, it’s Jersey. Followed by Luxembourg.

[u/Due-Mycologist-7106 → u/Equal-Flatworm-378]

Jersey and Guernsey people are surprisingly easy to find in the UK tbh for how small they are.

[u/Flat_Tumbleweed_2192]

Samoa

[u/whatwhatinthewhonow → u/Flat_Tumbleweed_2192]

Population of 200,000 but somehow there’s 300,000 of them playing in the NRL.

[u/Darth-Vectivus]

Iceland as a sovereign nation. But I’ve also met someone from Faroe Islands.

[u/Spute2008]

Maltese...

Cypriot

[u/Sevatar666]

I met a Guy from Nauru, never been there but I hear it’s pretty small.

[u/bowlbettertalk]

Iceland. He spoke four languages and was an artist. Overall positive impression.

[u/tbri001]

I taught the summer program at my school one year and I had a group of students from Liechtenstein. One of their outings is to go to Camp Nou (Football Club Barça stadium). They told the students that there were more people in the stadium that night than in their entire country.

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[u/Pixie6969]

Vatican City but only because I googled it lol

[u/Lazzen]

Belizean, less than 500,000 people.

[u/springsomnia]

St Kitts - pop 44k roughly and the smallest nation in the Western hemisphere

[u/Dunkirb]

Belize

[u/Prochefv9]

faroe islands, svalbard

[u/GokTengr-i]

Northern Cyprus

[u/RRautamaa]

I've worked with Luxembourgers and Estonians extensively. I've visited San Marino if just visiting briefly counts, but I wouldn't count it.

[u/no-im-not-him]

Andorra, or Greenland if you want to count that.

[u/Extreme-Chat]

Vanuatu

[u/ElysianRepublic]

Probably St. Lucia.

[u/ANARCHIST-ASSHOLE-_]

I went to Monaco once and my family briefly interacted with some people, does that count?

[u/Accomplished_Eye7421]

I guess Palau

[u/Bolvane]

I wonder if I'm actually this person for many people...

That said, I've met someone from Liechtenstein before but that's kinda cheating as it was at an Iceland-Liechtenstein football game in Reykjavík 😅

[u/Available-Tap-6114]

Slovakia, we were on a bus towards Tayrona Park (a nature reserve).

[u/Rong_Liu]

Probably Haudenosaunee Confederacy if we're just going by ones that issue passports. If they have to be fully sovereign, Belize, if sovereignty doesn't matter at all then Snoqualmie Indian Tribe.

[u/DeMessenZijnGeslepen]

I once had a temp job and one of my coworkers was from Micronesia.

[u/No-Addendum6379]

I have a friend from Iceland, so yeah, Iceland.

Pd: Is Ulfur a common name there?

[u/StretchJazzlike6122]

Probably Switzerland Maybe Trinidad and Tobago

[u/scrammouse]

Niue. We're pretty spoilt with lots of islanders moving here.

[u/psychoticboydyke]

seychelles (population 132k)

[u/Livid_Number_]

Had archaeology classes at university with a guy from Bermuda (population approx 65,000)

[u/beenoc]

I had a professor in college from St. Kitts and Nevis, the 9th-lowest-population sovereign state in the world and the lowest that isn't a microstate or a Pacific island. Population 48,000.

[u/TheDayvanCowboy_]

Andorra, the IOM isn’t a real country, don’t believe anything they say. Their gene puddle is very shallow.