List Of Countries Beginning With A | A Countries Sorted

If you’re hunting for country names that start with “A,” you usually want a clean list you can trust, plus a few details that stop second-guessing. This page gives you the full set of UN member states that begin with A, then adds capitals, regions, and quick identifiers you can use in writing, quizzes, travel planning, data cleanup, and classroom work.

It’s tidy enough for quick reading, yet detailed enough for clean copy-paste.

Before we get into the list, one quick note on scope: this uses English short country names for sovereign states that are members of the United Nations. It won’t include territories, subdivisions, or historical names that show up in older atlases.

List Of Countries Beginning With A With Capitals And Regions

Use this table when you want a fast, reliable answer and a bit of context at the same time. Countries are in alphabetical order as written in English.

Country	Capital	UN Region (Common)
Afghanistan	Kabul	Asia
Albania	Tirana	Europe
Algeria	Algiers	Africa
Andorra	Andorra la Vella	Europe
Angola	Luanda	Africa
Antigua and Barbuda	St. John’s	Americas (Caribbean)
Argentina	Buenos Aires	Americas (South America)
Armenia	Yerevan	Asia
Australia	Canberra	Oceania
Austria	Vienna	Europe
Azerbaijan	Baku	Asia

How This List Was Built And How To Verify It

Country naming gets messy fast. Spellings shift, governments rename themselves, and different datasets use different “short” forms. To keep this list steady, the baseline here is UN membership paired with widely used English short names.

If you want to double-check the current roster, the official United Nations member states list is the cleanest starting point. For code work, the ISO 3166 country codes standard is a common reference for two-letter and three-letter country identifiers.

When you compare sources, stick to the same rule set all the way through a project. Mixing “short names,” “official long names,” and “local language names” in one spreadsheet is a classic way to create duplicates.

Country Name Traps With The Letter A

Most A-countries are straightforward, yet a few details trip people up. Here are the ones that cause the most typos and sorting errors.

Antigua And Barbuda Has A Connector Word

“Antigua and Barbuda” includes a lowercase connector word in the middle. Some lists alphabetize it under Antigua; others strip the connector and treat it like a two-part name. In plain writing, keep the country name intact and avoid shortening it unless your style guide permits it.

Andorra’s Capital Uses A Lowercase Particle

The capital is “Andorra la Vella.” The “la” is lowercase in standard English rendering. If your dataset forces Title Case on every word, you may need to lock that capital name as an exception.

Algiers Vs Algeria

Algiers is the capital city; Algeria is the country. They look similar, and that’s why flashcards and quizzes love them. A quick memory cue: the country ends with “-ia,” while the capital ends with “-ers.”

Ways People Use A-Country Lists

A list of countries beginning with a sounds simple, yet it shows up in lots of real tasks. If you know why you need it, you’ll pick the right format right away.

School Work And Quiz Prep

For memorization, pair the country with one extra anchor: a capital, a continent, or a flag sketch. That second hook cuts down the “I know it starts with A… what was it?” moment.

Writing And Editing

Editors use alphabet lists to spot inconsistent spellings, stray commas, and mismatched capitalization. If you’re writing a worksheet or handout, keep one spelling rule for apostrophes and accents across the full set.

Data Cleaning And Forms

Drop-down menus and database fields often prefer stable codes over names. If you must store names, store a code next to it. Codes handle minor spelling shifts without breaking your joins.

How Many Countries Start With A And Why Counts Differ

In most modern references, there are 11 sovereign states that start with the letter A. That number can look different when a list mixes in territories, dependencies, or regional labels.

You might see extra A entries in travel sites or trivia sheets, like Aruba, American Samoa, Anguilla, or Åland Islands. Those places can be real destinations with their own flags and local rules, yet they are not UN member states as countries in the usual classroom sense. If your task is a world-countries quiz, stick to the 11 names in the first table. If your task is a travel checklist, your list might be wider, and that’s fine as long as you label it clearly.

One more wrinkle is naming style. Some datasets store “official long names” that include political forms, while others store shorter everyday names. When you stay with short names, the A list stays simple. When you switch to long names, new entries can appear because some countries begin with “The” or with a formal phrase but still the short name starts with another letter.

Name And Capital Spelling Notes You’ll Actually Use

Spelling issues are where most lists break. A single character can turn a match into a miss, especially in strict forms and grade-checking tools.

St. John’s Has Two Common Formats

The capital of Antigua and Barbuda is written as “St. John’s” in many references, with a period after “St.” and an apostrophe in “John’s.” Some systems expand it to “Saint John’s” to avoid punctuation. Pick one version and keep it consistent in every place you publish it.

Buenos Aires Is Two Words

Argentina’s capital uses two words. In narrow table columns, people sometimes squeeze it into one token or insert a hyphen. Keep it as two words unless your software forces a change, then document that rule.

Yerevan And Tirana Are Good Spell-Checks

If you’re proofreading, “Yerevan” and “Tirana” act like quick alarms. A wrong vowel often means the rest of the row may have copy-paste mistakes too.

If you’re building a class handout, a simple way to reduce errors is to paste from one trusted list once, then lock the cells. That’s quicker than retyping names from scratch.

Mini Profiles Of Each Country Starting With A

This section gives you one tight line per country to help you tell them apart. It’s not a deep reference entry; it’s the “quick recall” layer people wish lists had.

Afghanistan

Afghanistan is a landlocked state in South-Central Asia, with Kabul as its capital. In many datasets you’ll see the ISO code AF, which helps keep it distinct from similarly spelled words.

Albania

Albania sits in Southeast Europe on the Adriatic and Ionian seas, with Tirana as its capital. It’s often grouped with the Balkans in regional lists.

Algeria

Algeria is in North Africa and has a long Mediterranean coastline, with Algiers as its capital. It’s one of the largest countries by area on the African continent.

Andorra

Andorra is a small, mountainous country between France and Spain, with Andorra la Vella as its capital. It’s known for being compact, which makes it a frequent “microstate” entry in quizzes.

Angola

Angola lies on the southwest coast of Africa, with Luanda as its capital. Watch for the extra “a” in Angola when you’re typing fast.

Antigua And Barbuda

Antigua and Barbuda is an island state in the Caribbean, with St. John’s as its capital. The apostrophe in “John’s” is a common source of formatting glitches in forms.

Argentina

Argentina is a large country in South America, with Buenos Aires as its capital. Many lists place it near Antarctica in map exercises because of its southern latitude.

Armenia

Armenia is in the South Caucasus area, with Yerevan as its capital. Depending on a dataset’s regional scheme, it may be grouped with Asia or with Europe-adjacent regions.

Australia

Australia is both a country and a continent in common school usage, with Canberra as its capital. People often guess Sydney, so the capital fact is worth keeping close.

Austria

Austria is a Central European country, with Vienna as its capital. It’s often mixed up with Australia in casual talk, so spelling and context matter.

Mix-ups between Austria and Australia are common in worksheets. A fast fix is to pair each with its capital: Vienna goes with Austria; Canberra goes with Australia. If you’re making a quiz, put those two side by side once, so students learn the contrast early and stop swapping them later. That pairing saves time when grading and entering scores.

Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan is a country at the crossroads of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, with Baku as its capital. Its name can be tricky; keep the “-baijan” ending intact when copying from a source list.

Second Table: Codes And Currencies For Quick Checks

If you’re working in spreadsheets, classroom datasets, or forms, codes and currencies can be faster than long names. This table gives a compact “identity bundle” for each A-country.

Country	ISO Alpha-2	Currency (Common Name)
Afghanistan	AF	Afghani
Albania	AL	Lek
Algeria	DZ	Algerian dinar
Andorra	AD	Euro
Angola	AO	Kwanza
Antigua and Barbuda	AG	East Caribbean dollar
Argentina	AR	Argentine peso
Armenia	AM	Dram
Australia	AU	Australian dollar
Austria	AT	Euro
Azerbaijan	AZ	Manat

Sorting And Formatting Rules That Keep Your List Clean

When you copy an A-country list into a worksheet, the list can break in boring ways: curly apostrophes, stray spaces, and forced capitalization. A few small habits keep it tidy.

Pick One Alphabet Rule

Decide whether you’re sorting by plain A-Z or by locale rules that treat accents and punctuation differently. Then keep that same choice in every sheet and document tied to the project.

Watch Apostrophes And Smart Quotes

“St. John’s” may show up with a straight apostrophe or a curly one. If you’re matching text across systems, normalize punctuation first, then compare.

Store A Code Next To The Name

ISO codes are short and stable. If “Congo” can be ambiguous in some lists, codes remove that ambiguity. The same logic helps with A-countries in large datasets.

Printable Checklist Text You Can Paste Into Notes

If you want the names only, here’s a clean line-break list you can paste into a doc, a slide, or a quiz sheet. It matches the table order above.

• Afghanistan
• Albania
• Algeria
• Andorra
• Angola
• Antigua and Barbuda
• Argentina
• Armenia
• Australia
• Austria
• Azerbaijan

Quick Self Check Before You Publish Or Submit

Run this short checklist before you hand in an assignment, publish a post, or upload a dataset. It catches the easy misses.

1. Did you include only sovereign states in the same rule set?
2. Did you keep “Antigua and Barbuda” intact, including the connector word?
3. Did you keep “Andorra la Vella” with a lowercase “la”?
4. Did you keep the apostrophe in “St. John’s” consistent across files?
5. Did you keep one sorting method from start to finish?