This post is adapted from the excellent article on Nomad Mania
UNITED NATIONS MASTERS – An Analysis
Nomad Mania works very hard to keep track of travellers who have visited all 193 UN countries. The following is an extract from a detailed analysis done in January 2024 and published in Nomad Mania.
Interest in visiting every country began in the 1990s. By 2000, almost 20 had done so. Many were members of Traveler’s Century Club (TCC), so most were American.
Nomad Mania sorts UN Masters by year of completion.
By 2008, 55 from 16 nationalities had reached the goal. 62% were white, male and over 50; 91% were white and male. By 2010, the number started to increase with 12 travellers reaching 192. South Sudan became independent in 2011, making 193.
There was an average of 10 per year up to 2015. There were 15 in 2016 and 47 in 2019.
COVID in 2020 reduced the number to 12, most before mid-March, 11 in 2021 and after COVID, 50 in 2023. The mix of ethnicities, ages and profiles has been considerably more diverse since 2008.
Since then, three travellers have visited every country twice – Gunnar Garfors, Slawek Muturi and Harry Mitsidis. The 80-year-old Spaniard Juan Luis Galatas was missing North Korea.
Nomad Mania makes an incredible effort to record them all. Some are missed. A poll conducted by NM in 2022 helped set standards for what constitutes a visit. Visits to the DMZ for North Korea or the Golan Heights for Syria, airport transits or simply stepping across a border don’t count even though Guinness and the TCC have accepted such visits. If everyone who claimed to visit 193 is included, there were 356 as of December 31, 2023. Of these, 30 ‘transited’ countries, 25 are deceased and 30 are “word of mouth”.
COUNTRIES of UN MASTERS
The United States has 119 UN masters and 45 countries have at least one. By overall population, Finland, with a population of 5,545,000, has 17 UN masters, or one for every 326,000 people. Sweden with double the population has 4 and Norway with the same population has 5. The United States has one for 2.8 million,
Scandinavian countries 50, Germany 30, United Kingdom 28, France 4
Asia, China (including Hong Kong, four are foreign-born with other passports) and Japan are tied with 9.
Africa has one in South Africa.
Central and Latin America (including Mexico). Brazil has 2 UN Masters, Colombia, Mexico (Magali Hinojosa) and Panama each have one, but all have a second passport.
Australia (10) and New Zealand (6) are also relatively ‘high’ in terms of numbers compared to their populations.
‘Developed’ countries with none include Chile, Croatia, Estonia, Israel, Slovenia and South Korea. The Gulf states or Saudi Arabia have none.
Low Passport Index (LPI) countries have only 7 but some may have a second passport. This is less than 2% of the total number even though LPI countries represent 50% of the total number of countries and about 70% of the world’s population. The first LPI traveller to achieve the feat is Benny Prasad from India. The others are: Indian Kashi Samaddar and Ranjan Sharma, Chinese Ke Yin He, Zhang Lili and Huang Shihe and Kazakh Kazakh Bolat Yerezhepov.
The biggest countries by population with no UN master claims are Indonesia and Pakistan. The smallest country by population with a UN Master is Iceland.
GENDER
Men 304. This is still a male-dominated field.
Women 52. Completing before 2010: Carmen Becker (1994), Marian Speno (1998), Audrey Walsworth (2005) and Nina Sedano (2010). Of the 52 claims by women, 30 finished since 2019. In 2023, of the 50 new UN Masters 14 were female.
Couples. 26 people did it as a couple, 11 male-female couples, one same-sex (female) couple and one ‘couple’ of identical (male) twins.
ETHNICITY. Using the UK Census definitions, 45 are not white. Subtracting China, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan (‘developed Asian economies,’) 25.
Black – Caribbean or African 5.
Asian Bangladeshi/Indian/Pakistani 11; Asian – Chinese or Asian other 30.
AGE when achieving UN master. This has only changed minimally
The average age of completion for around 300 respondents is 53, the same for women. United States 57, Sweden 57, Finland 56, Italy and Russia 47 years old.
For years, Kaiser Sepp from Austria completed at 33 in 1995, and Maurizio Giuliano at 28. Since then, 25 are 33 or younger (although several have transited countries).
20s: 12, 30s: 50, 40s: 69, 50s: 54, 60s: 64, 70s: 45, 80s: 6
It is an extremely diverse group – marital status, political opinions, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status and family background. They love travel.
Nomad Mania believes they are missing about 30% of those who have done it.
NOMAD MANIA UN MASTERS CATEGORIES
1. Verified for both UN countries and regions
2. Verified for UN countries but not regions
3. Non-Nomad Mania members with websites or a media reference.
4. Deceased.
5. Word of Mouth. Often from TCC archives but no media reference or personal communication.
6. Don’t satisfy Nomad Mania’s rules of a visit (airport transfers) 30.
Almost there: 80 are missing less than seven. 21 are missing only one country.
Not counting those who are deceased, can’t be confirmed or are unknown.
There are about 295 UN masters or 1 UN Master in 30 million.
THE LAST UN COUNTRY
Nomad keeps information on a UN Master’s last visited country. The concept of a ‘difficult country’ has changed greatly with time. Bhutan, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina have become easy. DR Congo, Angola, South Sudan and Niger were previously hard but not recently.
Difficult:
Central African Republic 5
Eritrea and Equatorial Guinea 9. Both have had complex visa policies. EG introduced an e-visa on July 1, 2023, which has made it much easier,
Nauru 12. Remote, obscure and a difficult visa.
Iraq 13. Difficult in the 1990s but not since 2017.
Saudi Arabia 15. Notoriously difficult visa until 2019.
Syria 15
Yemen 13 claims since 2017
North Korea. Impossible since COVID. Nomad Mania believes that many are visits to the DMZ which NM doesn’t accept.
Turkmenistan 9. Opened in early 2023 after COVID. 8 completed 193 in 2023.
Afghanistan 13. Difficult since the late 1970s. All were completed from 2001 to 2023.
Libya 23. Since 2011, it has been unsafe and unstable. Had a difficult ‘business’ only visa (13 since 2021)
Medium Difficulty. A few people have opted for ‘middle of the road’ countries as last, but these are the minority. Countries include Cuba, Guinea-Bissau, Laos, Madagascar, Palau, Samoa and Tonga.
Easy. Less than 10% of the total, leave an ‘easy’ country for last – Andorra, Brazil, Canada, Cyprus, Iceland, Ireland, Malta, Norway, San Marino or the Seychelles (5).\
THE FUTURE
The common profile of an older white male UN Master is indeed the majority, but things are changing rapidly. An average age of 53 and the equalization of gender suggests these will continue to change. However, ethnicities and nationalities are not changing at the same pace as most UN masters continue to come from developed countries.
Many travellers from Low Passport Index countries have a second passport that allows greater travel
Many will achieve UN Master status once North Korea opens its border, expected to happen in 2024. Libya and Syria are still problematic for travellers from the United States
Countries now impossible are Sudan, some Sahel countries (Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali) and Haiti.
Nomad Mania depends on the Nomad Mania community and others for corrections and up-to-date information, especially from members of the TCC. This article will be updated quarterly – the next is April 2024.