Is Vatican City a country? What makes it one, and what it goes without

Yes, Vatican City is a country, and not as a figure of speech or a diplomatic courtesy. It’s a sovereign state with territory, people, a government, laws and passports, recognised by Italy in a 1929 treaty, while the Holy See at its head keeps diplomatic relations with 184 states. The catch is that it’s such an odd country that every answer comes with a caveat, and those caveats are what I find most interesting. Here’s what makes it a state and what it deliberately goes without, written for someone about to walk in. The wider overview is in my Vatican City guide.

The Holy See and Vatican City, two bodies under one head

This is where nearly everyone gets tangled, and fair enough. The Holy See is the sovereign body of the Catholic Church, while the State of Vatican City is the 44-hectare territory by the Tiber. Each has its own international legal personality, and both answer to the Pope, who represents the state abroad through the Secretariat of State.

In practice, whenever you read that the Vatican has ambassadors or sits at the UN, it’s usually the Holy See doing the talking. The UN accepted it as a Permanent Observer on 6 April 1964, without a vote. The state, by contrast, belongs to very down-to-earth bodies such as the Universal Postal Union and the International Telecommunication Union. I think this split is the single most useful thing to grasp, because it explains how a country the size of a neighbourhood carries so much weight abroad.

Why is Vatican City a country at all?

Because it was negotiated. After Italian troops took Rome in 1870, the Pope lost the Papal States and withdrew into the Vatican, and for nearly sixty years refused to recognise the Kingdom of Italy. The stand-off ended with the Lateran Pacts, signed on 11 February 1929 by Cardinal Pietro Gasparri and Benito Mussolini. In article 26 of the Treaty, Italy recognises the State of Vatican City under papal sovereignty, and the Holy See declares the Roman Question settled. Ratifications were exchanged on 7 June 1929, the date the state started working, and the flag went up the next day. The full story, from Nero’s circus to the present, is in the history of Vatican City.

The stated aim was to give the Holy See independence that was «absolute and visible». A tiny territory of its own meant the Pope depended on no government.

How big it is, who lives there and what they speak

The official area is 0.44 km². At the end of 2024 there were 882 residents, counting citizens and non-citizens alike. Citizens numbered 618, and only 246 of them lived inside the walls, 104 of those being Swiss Guards. Around half of all citizens live abroad, mainly diplomatic staff.

What strikes me most is how citizenship works. You can’t inherit it and you don’t get it by being born there. It’s tied to living in the state because of an office or job, and it lapses when that role ends. Cardinals living in Rome hold it too, and at the end of 2024 there were 66 of them, ten actually resident in the Vatican.

On language I’d be careful. The Treccani encyclopaedia gives Italian as the language of the state, and it’s what you’ll hear, but I haven’t found a Vatican legal text that says so. Latin is the official language of the Holy See, which isn’t the same thing.

An absolute monarch with a brand-new constitution

Vatican City is an absolute monarchy. The Pope holds legislative, executive and judicial power, delegating the first to the Pontifical Commission, made up of cardinals appointed for five years, and the second to the President of the Governorate. Justice is handed down by a Tribunal, a Court of Appeal and a Court of Cassation, all ruling in the Pope’s name.

The head of state is Leo XIV, Robert Francis Prevost, elected on 8 May 2025. On 31 July 2026 he issued a new Fundamental Law of the State, replacing the 2023 one entirely and keeping, in its first article, the Pope’s fullness of governing power.

Passports, number plates, dialling code and domain

It has its own paperwork, and the Holy See and state split shows up again. The state issues the ordinary passport, electronic and only for Vatican citizens, valid for up to five years. The Holy See issues diplomatic and service passports, which people who aren’t citizens can also hold. Both use the VAT issuing code.

Cars belonging to the state and the Holy See carry SCV plates, while those of citizens and authorised people carry CV, and the international code is V. The internet domain is .va, registered on 11 September 1995. The phone system has a quirk I love. The ITU has assigned +379 to Vatican City but marks it as reserved for future use, so real numbers start with +39 06 698, which is Rome’s code.

What it goes without, on purpose

It isn’t an EU member. It uses the euro under a monetary agreement signed in 2009 and in force from 1 January 2010, which allows it to mint a limited number of coins and bars it from printing notes. Everything practical about paying there is in money and payments in Vatican City. Nor is it in Schengen, which the European Commission puts at 29 countries, yet you still stroll in from Rome with no checks of any kind.

It has no army either. On 14 September 1970 Paul VI abolished every military corps except the Swiss Guard, now 135 strong. Security and policing fall to the Gendarmerie, and the fire brigade sits in the same directorate. According to the ACI Stampa news agency there are three cells in the Gendarmerie building and longer sentences are served in Italy, which fits the Treaty’s provision for Italy to punish crimes committed inside at the Holy See’s request.

A pharmacy, a supermarket and everyday life in a micro-state

The domestic side is what I like best. The Vatican Pharmacy is run by the Brothers Hospitallers of St John of God, and anyone with a prescription can buy there, resident or not. You go in through the Permit Office at St Anne’s Gate with photo ID and the original paper prescription, as digital ones aren’t accepted. It opens Monday to Friday 8:30 to 18:00 and Saturday 8:30 to 13:00, with shorter summer hours, and there’s a parapharmacy under the colonnade on the square.

The supermarket, the Annona, is for Governorate and Holy See staff, and reopened after refurbishment as Tigre-Annona. There’s a state mint too, and a post office with its own postmark. On the square side there’s no wall, only that strip of travertine, and you’ll see where each boundary runs on the Vatican City map. My takeaway for travellers is simple. It’s a real country, but you visit it like a district of Rome, with no customs and with a state’s rules that are worth reading first in how to visit Vatican City.

And what ID to bring, in passport for the Vatican.

More surprising figures are among the Vatican City facts.