Countries That Start With E: The Complete List, Explained

Eight is a small number for a whole letter of the alphabet, which is exactly why the E list attracts so many wrong versions. Classroom posters add names that feel right, older web pages keep countries that no longer exist, and some lists quietly count places that are not countries. This article gives you the definitive list, explains how it was built, introduces each of the eight countries properly, and then shows you the traps that produce the wrong lists, so you can spot them anywhere.

The standard used here is the one geographers and reference works rely on: a “country” is a sovereign state, and the cleanest test of that is membership of the United Nations. The UN has 193 member states. Checking the member list from Ecuador through Ethiopia produces exactly eight names beginning with E, and no ninth name is hiding anywhere in it.

The complete list of countries that start with E

Country	Capital	Region	Population (rounded estimate)	One thing to know
Ecuador	Quito	South America	About 18.5 million (2025)	Its name literally means “equator”
Egypt	Cairo	Northern Africa	About 109 million (2026)	It has land on two continents, Africa and Asia
El Salvador	San Salvador	Central America	About 6.4 million (2026)	The smallest and most densely populated country in Central America
Equatorial Guinea	Ciudad de la Paz	Central Africa	About 1.8 million (2026)	The only African country where Spanish is an official language
Eritrea	Asmara	Eastern Africa	About 3.7 million (2026; see the note below)	It won independence from Ethiopia in 1993
Estonia	Tallinn	Northern Europe	About 1.3 million (2026)	The northernmost of the three Baltic states
Eswatini	Mbabane (executive) and Lobamba (legislative)	Southern Africa	About 1.2 million (2023)	It changed its name from Swaziland in 2018
Ethiopia	Addis Ababa	Eastern Africa	About 138 million (2026)	The second most populous country in Africa, with a 13-month calendar

Population figures are rounded recent estimates from Encyclopaedia Britannica and the CIA World Factbook, date-stamped in the table because estimates are revised every year. One figure deserves an honest warning: Eritrea’s. Britannica estimates about 3.7 million people for 2026, while the CIA World Factbook estimates about 6.4 million for 2025. Eritrea publishes very little official data, so published estimates for it diverge more than for any other country on this list, and the table uses the Britannica figure with that disagreement stated rather than hidden.

Meet the eight countries

Ecuador

Ecuador sits on the Pacific coast of South America, between Colombia to the north and Peru to the south and east, and it is the only E country in the Americas alongside El Salvador. Its name is the giveaway: ecuador is the Spanish word for the equator, and the country took its name from the equatorial line that crosses it, formally styling itself the Republic of the Equator when it became a standalone republic in 1830. The capital, Quito, sits high in the Andes. Ecuador also governs the Galápagos Islands, about 1,000 kilometers (roughly 620 miles) out in the Pacific, whose wildlife helped shape Charles Darwin’s thinking on evolution. It joined the United Nations on December 21, 1945.

Egypt

Egypt is the E country most people name first, and it anchors the northeastern corner of Africa, with the Mediterranean to the north and the Red Sea to the east. Its capital, Cairo, is the largest city in both Africa and the Arab world. Egypt holds a geographic distinction none of its seven list-mates shares: it is transcontinental. Most of the country lies in Africa, but the Sinai Peninsula, east of the Suez Canal, is usually regarded as part of Asia, so about 6 percent of Egypt’s land sits on a second continent. Egypt’s formal name, the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a useful reminder of how these lists work: countries are filed under their familiar short-form names, and under “Egypt” the country begins with E whatever its formal name says. Egypt is an original member of the UN, admitted on October 24, 1945.

El Salvador

El Salvador is the smallest country in Central America and, at the same time, the region’s most densely populated, a combination Britannica highlights because it defines the place: about 6.4 million people in a territory of roughly 21,000 square kilometers. Its capital and largest city is San Salvador, and it is the only Central American country with no Caribbean coastline, facing only the Pacific. Its name is Spanish for “the Savior,” a religious naming typical of the Spanish colonial era. Like Egypt, it is an original UN member, admitted on October 24, 1945.

Equatorial Guinea

Equatorial Guinea, on the west coast of Central Africa between Cameroon and Gabon, takes its name from two geographic facts: it sits just north of the equator, and it faces the Gulf of Guinea. It is the only country in Africa where Spanish is an official language, a legacy of its history as Spain’s colony of Spanish Guinea; French and Portuguese also hold official status. The country has two parts, a mainland territory called Río Muni and islands that include Bioko, where the longtime capital Malabo stands. In a change many lists have not caught up with, a presidential decree on January 2, 2026 declared the planned mainland city of Ciudad de la Paz to be the new capital, though Britannica notes that government offices initially remained in Malabo while the transfer is carried out. Equatorial Guinea joined the UN on November 12, 1968, weeks after independence from Spain.

Eritrea

Eritrea runs for roughly 1,000 kilometers along the western shore of the Red Sea, in the Horn of Africa, and its capital is Asmara. It is the youngest country on this list as an independent state: after a war of independence that lasted nearly three decades, Eritreans voted overwhelmingly for independence in a 1993 referendum, and Eritrea joined the United Nations on May 28, 1993. Its name is an Italianized form of the Latin Mare Erythraeum, meaning “Red Sea,” so the country is named, very appropriately, after the water it borders.

Estonia

Estonia is the only E country in Europe: the northernmost of the three Baltic states, across the Gulf of Finland from Finland and next door to Latvia and Russia. Its capital is Tallinn, whose medieval old town is one of the best preserved in northern Europe. Estonia first declared independence in 1918, spent five decades under Soviet occupation and annexation, and restored its independence on August 20, 1991, joining the UN on September 17, 1991. It is also known as one of the world’s most digitally advanced societies: in 2005 it became the first country to hold elections with binding internet voting, and it later pioneered e-residency for foreigners.

Eswatini

Eswatini, a small landlocked kingdom in Southern Africa bordered by South Africa and Mozambique, is the country that recently changed this list. Until 2018 it was known as Swaziland, and it sat under S. On April 19, 2018, King Mswati III announced that the country would return to its pre-colonial name, Eswatini, which means “land of the Swazis” in the Swazi language. Overnight, the E list gained its eighth member and the S list lost one. Eswatini is one of the world’s last absolute monarchies, and it is unusual in having two capitals: Mbabane is the executive and administrative capital, while Lobamba is the royal and legislative capital. It joined the UN on September 24, 1968, shortly after independence from Britain.

Ethiopia

Ethiopia, in the Horn of Africa, is by far the largest country on this list by population: about 138 million people, making it the second most populous country in Africa after Nigeria and roughly a quarter larger than the next E country, Egypt. Its capital, Addis Ababa, hosts the headquarters of the African Union. Ethiopia is famous for doing time differently: it follows its own calendar of 13 months (twelve months of 30 days and a short thirteenth month), so its year count runs about seven to eight years behind the Gregorian calendar used in most of the world. It also holds a singular place in African history as a country that maintained its independence through the colonial era, apart from a five-year Italian occupation from 1936 to 1941. Ethiopia is another original UN member, admitted on November 13, 1945.

The name that does not belong: East Timor

The most common error on E lists is “East Timor,” and it is an understandable one, because the country was widely called East Timor in English for decades, during its time as a Portuguese colony and then under Indonesian occupation. But when the country became independent and joined the United Nations on September 27, 2002, as the UN’s 191st member state, it chose to be admitted under its Portuguese official name: the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste. Timor-Leste means “East Timor” in Portuguese, so the meaning survived the change; the first letter did not. Under the name the country itself uses at the UN, it belongs under T, and any E list that includes it is working from an outdated name. Britannica Kids states the point plainly: the newly sovereign country “chose to be admitted under its Portuguese name, Timor-Leste.”

Other names lists get wrong

England. Posters and quiz sites often slip England into the E list, sometimes reaching a round ten names by doing so. England is a country in the everyday British sense, one of the four constituent countries of the United Kingdom, alongside Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. But it is not a sovereign state: it has no UN seat, no separate foreign policy, and no international legal personality of its own. A list of sovereign countries cannot include it, any more than a list of US states could include a county.

East Germany. At least one high-ranking library guide still shows East Germany on its E page. The German Democratic Republic did exist, and it was a UN member from 1973, but it ceased to exist in 1990 when Germany reunified. A list of countries that start with E in the present tense cannot include a state that has not existed for more than three decades.

Dependencies and territories. No dependency or territory begins with E in its own right, but the principle matters for every letter list: places like the Faroe Islands or Gibraltar are real places with their own governments, yet they are not sovereign countries, and careful lists exclude them and say so.

Why lists disagree

Nearly every disagreement about this list comes from one of four causes. First, name changes: Eswatini joined the list only in 2018, and Timor-Leste left it in 2002, so any list written between those events, or copied from one, will differ from today’s. Second, short names versus formal names: reference lists use the names countries are commonly known by. Egypt’s formal name begins with A (Arab Republic of Egypt) and Equatorial Guinea’s with R (Republic of Equatorial Guinea), yet both belong under E because their short-form names start with E. Third, what counts as a country: lists that quietly include constituent countries like England, or territories, will always be longer than lists of sovereign states. Fourth, simple copying: letter lists are among the most copied pages on the internet, and an error in one popular list, such as the East Timor entry, propagates for years. The fix for all four is the same: build the list from the UN member list, use current official names, and state the standard you used, as this article does.

Countries that start with E at a glance

• How many: 8 sovereign states
• The full list: Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Eswatini, Ethiopia
• By continent: Africa 5 (Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia); the Americas 2 (Ecuador, El Salvador); Europe 1 (Estonia); Asia 0
• Most populous: Ethiopia, about 138 million
• Least populous: Eswatini, about 1.2 million
• Newest name on the list: Eswatini, renamed from Swaziland in 2018
• Most recent to join the UN: Eritrea, May 28, 1993
• Not on the list, despite appearances: East Timor (officially Timor-Leste) and England (part of the United Kingdom)

Frequently asked questions

How many countries start with the letter E?

Eight. Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Eswatini, and Ethiopia are the only sovereign states whose names begin with E, based on the United Nations member-state list.

Is East Timor a country that starts with E?

No. The country exists and is a UN member, but its official name is Timor-Leste, the name it chose when it joined the United Nations on September 27, 2002. “East Timor” is the older English name, so the country is filed under T.

Why is England not on the list?

England is one of the four constituent countries of the United Kingdom, not a sovereign state. It has no separate seat at the United Nations and no independent foreign policy, so lists of sovereign countries exclude it.

Which country that starts with E changed its name recently?

Eswatini. King Mswati III announced on April 19, 2018 that the Kingdom of Swaziland would return to its pre-colonial name, the Kingdom of Eswatini. Before 2018, this list had only seven names on it.

What is the largest country that starts with E?

What is the capital of Eswatini?

Eswatini has two capitals. Mbabane is the executive and administrative capital and the largest city, while Lobamba is the royal and legislative capital, home to the parliament and the Queen Mother’s residence.

Are there any countries that start with E in Asia or Europe?

Europe has one: Estonia. Asia has none as sovereign states, although Egypt holds Asian territory (the Sinai Peninsula) and many E lists wrongly add Timor-Leste, which is in Asia but filed under T.

Sources & references

• United Nations, Member States list (the eight E names and their admission dates: Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Eswatini, Ethiopia; Eswatini name changed from Swaziland on April 19, 2018).
• UN Statistics Division, M49 standard list of countries and areas (Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Eswatini, Ethiopia as listed member names and codes).
• CIA World Factbook, Ecuador (capital Quito; population 18,479,841, 2025 est.; the name changed to "Republic of the Equator" in 1830; location at the Equator between Colombia and Peru).
• Encyclopaedia Britannica, Egypt summary (official name Arab Republic of Egypt; population about 109,139,000, 2026 est.; Cairo as capital and largest city in Africa and the Arab world). As verified in Amberaisle AMB-087.
• Encyclopaedia Britannica, Sinai Peninsula and Suez Canal (Sinai usually regarded as part of Asia; the canal separates Africa from Asia), via AMB-087 sources.
• Britannica Kids, El Salvador (smallest country in Central America and the region's most densely populated; capital San Salvador; population 6,384,000, 2026 est.).
• Encyclopaedia Britannica, Equatorial Guinea facts (capital Ciudad de la Paz; presidential decree of January 2, 2026 declaring Ciudad de la Paz the new capital, with government offices initially remaining at Malabo; population 1,787,000, 2026 est.; official languages Spanish and French).
• CIA World Factbook, Equatorial Guinea (population 1,795,834, 2024 est.; Spanish an official language; capital note on Malabo and Bioko).
• Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eritrea summary (officially State of Eritrea; population 3,683,000, 2026 est.; capital Asmara; about 600 miles (1,000 km) of Red Sea coast; independence came in 1993 after nearly three decades of guerrilla warfare).
• CIA World Factbook, Eritrea (population 6,416,435, 2025 est., the competing estimate flagged in the article; Eritreans overwhelmingly approved independence in a 1993 referendum).
• Wikipedia, Estonia (capital Tallinn; independence restored August 20, 1991; population about 1.3 million; EU, Eurozone, NATO and OECD member; first state to hold elections over the internet in 2005 and to provide e-residency).
• Wikipedia, Eswatini (capital Mbabane (executive) and Lobamba (legislative); renaming on April 19, 2018 announced by King Mswati III; UN membership September 24, 1968; population 1,236,126, 2023 est.; absolute monarchy).
• UN News, "UN General Assembly admits Timor-Leste as 191st member" (September 27, 2002; admitted as the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, "formerly East Timor").
• Britannica Kids, East Timor (independence May 20, 2002; became the 191st UN member on September 27, 2002 and "chose to be admitted under its Portuguese name, Timor-Leste").
• Wikipedia, Ethiopia (Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia; capital Addis Ababa; about 138 million inhabitants in 2026; second most populous country in Africa; landlocked Horn of Africa state).