Wikipedia, what most people know as Wikipedia, in reality is a universe of websites that span the globe in almost every language. It includes a university, a news service, dictionary, creative commons media repository, et al.

The one website that links all of these together is Meta-Wiki. It is where issues common amongst  the projects are discussed, chapters are formed and guidelines are suggested. Not many people go to Meta, at least compared to Wikipedia or Commons, because it is largely organizational and informational.

Perhaps the most interesting guideline on Meta is the “List of articles every Wikipedia should have” – all 253 language editions.

The list covers everything—actors, ancient history, society, law, animals, chemistry, physics, technology, food, math, et al.—that a basic Wikipedia should have. I looked at countries. In December 2005 there was a glaring omission – there was no list for priority country articles.  Understandably, nobody wanted to offend:

Screenshot:  In December 2005, unlike every other topic, the list recommended “all countries”

But on April 13, 2006, editor Silence proposed this change:

One of the most glaring deficiencies for this page is its complete lack of any recommendations on which countries to have articles for. All it has is a lame cop-out, making the unreasonable and completely unhelpful demand that every Wikipedia have an article on every country, with absolutely no differentiation or prioritization between whether we need an article on India or on Swaziland first. This is both absurd and highly impractical. -Silence 07:02, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

Silence proposed a working draft list, and the criteria for selection focused on quantitative analysis such as “largest” “greatest” and “highest” population, geography, development index or other measurement.  By December 2006 the editors of Wikipedia had determined that out of 194 countries, there were 39 “more high-priority countries”.    At the end of 2007 the list had increased to 49 countries.  So now, as of December 2008, here are…

Wikipedia’s 48 More High-Priority Countries
(the ones that, at the minimum, every Wikipedia in any language should have articles about)

Sub-Saharan Africa

Democratic Republic of the Congo
Ethiopia
Nigeria
South Africa
Sudan
Tanzania

Asia

Bangladesh
People’s Republic of China
India
Japan
Pakistan
South Korea
Thailand
Vietnam

Europe

Austria
France
Germany
Greece
Ireland
Italy
Netherlands
Poland
Russia
Portugal
Spain
Switzerland
Turkey
Ukraine
United Kingdom
Vatican City

North Africa/Middle East

Afghanistan
Algeria
Egypt
Iran
Iraq
Israel
Saudi Arabia
United Arab Emirates

North America

Canada
Mexico
United States

South America/
Central America/Carribean

Argentina
Brazil
Venezuela
Cuba

Oceania

Australia
Indonesia
New Zealand