Which countries have the most UNESCO World Heritage Sites?

The UNESCO World Heritage List names places of "outstanding universal value": cathedrals, rainforests, old towns, rock art, industrial canals. It is updated once a year, when the World Heritage Committee meets in summer and votes on new nominations. So any ranking comes with a date attached.

The top countries

These counts are after the committee's July 2025 session, as reported by Guinness World Records and other trackers. A site shared by several countries counts once for each of them.

| Rank | Country | Sites | |---|---|---| | 1 | Italy | 61 | | 2 | China | 60 | | 3 | Germany | 55 | | 4 | France | 54 | | 5 | Spain | 50 | | 6 | Mexico | 35 | | 6 | United Kingdom | 35 |

Italy and China have been neck and neck at the top for years; they were tied at 55 in 2019. Later sessions keep adding sites, so check the official list at whc.unesco.org for the latest figure.

Why Europe dominates

Five of the top seven are European. Part of that is history: dense, well-documented medieval and Renaissance cities produce many candidates. Part of it is process. Nominations are prepared by each country, take years of work and money, and countries with established heritage agencies submit more of them. UNESCO has tried to rebalance the list for decades, for example by encouraging nominations from under-represented regions and of natural sites.

Cultural, natural and mixed

Each site is classed as cultural, natural or mixed. Cultural sites are the large majority. Some examples you might recognise from the Globby sticker packs:

• Cultural: the historic centre of Rome (Italy), the Great Wall (China), Angkor (Cambodia), Chichen Itza (Mexico), the Old City of Djenné (Mali), Borobudur (Indonesia).
• Natural: Iguazu National Park (Argentina and Brazil, listed separately by each), the Galápagos Islands (Ecuador), Lake Baikal (Russia), Ha Long Bay (Vietnam).
• Mixed: sites that qualify on both counts, such as Machu Picchu (Peru).

How a site gets listed

1. A country adds the place to its tentative list.
2. It prepares a nomination file showing why the place is of universal value and how it is protected.
3. Advisory bodies evaluate it: ICOMOS for cultural sites, IUCN for natural ones.
4. The committee votes at its annual session.

Listing is not permanent protection. Sites can be put on the List of World Heritage in Danger, and a few have been removed altogether, such as Liverpool's waterfront in 2021.

A quick quiz

Without looking, which country do these belong to: the Alhambra, Hagia Sophia, the Hawa Mahal palace in Jaipur, Kinderdijk's windmills? (Spain, Turkey, India and the Netherlands. The Hawa Mahal is part of the Jaipur City site rather than a listing of its own.)