2025 Map of the Schengen Area, Europe's Border-free Travel Zone

What is the "Schengen Area"? What's the difference between Schengen and the EU? And which countries does Schengen include? Read on for all the answers, explained in plain English! 

Map by Evan Centanni, from blank map by Ssolbergj. License: CC BY-SA

Article by Evan Centanni

Originally published in March 2016, this article has been updated to July 2025, showing the addition of Croatia, Romania, and Bulgaria to the Schengen Area. We've also overhauled the styling of the map to avoid using the color blue for land areas, which some readers say they find confusing. To find older versions, you can view all Schengen Area articles on PolGeoNow. Our European Union map and explainer article has also been updated to July 2025.

What is the Schengen Area?

If you've traveled in Europe anytime in the last few decades, you probably know that many of Europe's countries have open borders, without any kind of customs or ID check required to cross from one country to another. That's because of the Schengen Agreement, a 1985 treaty that's since been expanded and made into a law of the European Union (EU).

The combined area of all the participating countries is known as the "Schengen Area", and is now a core part of the EU system. For the purposes of most travelers, the Schengen Area might as well be just one country: Not only have border checks been mostly eliminated, but permission to enter one Schengen country automatically applies to all of them (and on the other side of the coin, limits to how long visitors can stay don't restart when they cross from one Schengen country to another).

However, it's important to note that over the last 10 years, it's become common for Schengen countries to bring back ID checks at their borders, which can last for years, even if they're only sometimes enforced. This is based on a rule allowing member governments to set up border checks temporarily for urgent needs, though several countries now routinely renew their "temporary" checks every few months, which is widely considered to be against the spirit of the original agreement. PolGeoNow mapped out these "temporary border control" declarations during the period from 2016 to 2020, when they reached a height amid the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Schengen Area vs. European Union: What's the Difference?

Though operation of the Schengen Area and the EU is closely intertwined, they're not the same thing. Some countries are part of the EU but not the Schengen Area, while others are part of the Schengen Area but not the EU.

The full European Union (EU) with former and prospective members

The most important difference is that the EU is much more than just the Schengen Area: It's also an economic union, with unified customs and tax laws and its own currency, as well as a political union with an elected government that manages shared laws and some foreign policy for all the member countries.

The Schengen Agreement was originally a treaty completely separate from EU law, but is now operated and regulated by the EU government. (Awkwardly, the handful of non-EU Schengen countries now have barely any say over the rules and administration of the area - though as a last resort, they're considered welcome to leave any time).

Learn More: Which Countries are in the European Union in 2025, Which Aren't, and Which Want to Join?

Which Countries are in the Schengen Area? (List of Schengen Countries)

There are 29 official Schengen countries, all of them based in Europe. The only parts of the Schengen Area outside of Europe are: (1) the Canary Islands, a part of Spain off the coast of West Africa; (2) Madeira, a part of Portugal also made up of islands off West Africa; (3) the Azores, a part of Portugal made up of islands far out in the Atlantic Ocean; and officially (4) the cities of Ceuta and Melilla (and maybe some nearby uninhabited territories), which are part of Spain but located on the continent of Africa. In practice there are usually ID checks when traveling between Ceuta or Melilla and the rest of Spain, but other Schengen Area rules still apply to those cities (for example, being there counts towards a visitor's total time limit in the Schengen Area, and a visa issued by any Schengen country allows entry into the cities from Morocco).

The combined Schengen Area is equivalent in size to some of the world's biggest countries. It has more people than the United States, and a land area about half as big as the US or China, or a little bigger than India.

Here's a list of all the official Schengen countries, including the three most recent additions, Croatia, Bulgaria, and Romania (see our article about Schengen Area changes from 2020-2025):

Schengen countries that are also EU members

 Austria
 Bulgaria
 Belgium
 Croatia
 Czechia
 Denmark (except the Faroe Islands and Greenland*)
 Estonia
 Finland
 France (except overseas regions and territories)
 Germany
 Greece
 Hungary
 Italy
 Latvia
 Lithuania
 Luxembourg
 Malta
 Netherlands (except Caribbean islands)
 Poland
 Portugal
 Romania
 Slovakia
 Slovenia
 Spain (with partial exceptions for Ceuta and Melilla**)
 Sweden

Schengen countries that are not EU members

 Iceland
 Liechtenstein
 Norway (except Svalbard)
 Switzerland

There are also three very small countries that might as well be part of the Schengen Area, because their borders with the official Schengen countries were already mostly open:

Unofficial Schengen Area participants

 Monaco (only borders France)
 San Marino (surrounded by Italy)
 Vatican City (surrounded by Italy)
 

Another tiny European country, Andorra, could arguably be included on this list too, since it borders only Spain and France and doesn't usually do passport checks on visitors. However, it's said that Schengen authorities sometimes consider a visit to Andorra to be an "exit" from the Schengen Area, which matters for people with certain kinds of visas. 

See Also: 2020-2025 Expansion of Europe's Free-travel "Schengen Area" (And What's Next)  

*Greenland and the Faroe Islands have mostly open borders with Denmark proper, which is in the Schengen Area. However, they're officially considered to be outside the Schengen Area, and act like it in certain cases - for example, visas granting permission to visit the Schengen Area don't automatically allow arrival directly to Greenland or the Faroe Islands from non-Schengen countries.

**Ceuta and Melilla are two cities on the coast of North Africa that are part of Spain. They are officially part of the Schengen Area, but still have border checks for travelers going from the two cities to other parts of the Schengen Area. This is for enforcement of a special Spanish law that allows some citizens of neighboring country Morocco to visit Ceuta or Melilla - but not the rest of Spain or the Schengen Area - without a visa.
 

Which EU Members Aren't Schengen Countries?

Most of Europe's non-Schengen countries aren't EU members, but there are still two EU member countries that aren't in the Schengen Area. One of these is legally required to join the Schengen Area at some point in the future (as part of the terms of its EU membership), but hasn't been able to yet:

EU members that are future Schengen Countries

 Cyprus

Plans for the island country of Cyprus to join the Schengen Area are complicated by the fact that a large part of its territory is controlled by the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which doesn't recognize EU or Schengen authority. Cyprus might soon join Schengen anyway, but that will mean controversially setting up new restrictions on crossing between the two major parts of the island. (Two smaller parts of the island, the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia, are permanent territories of non-EU country the UK, and currently have mostly-open borders with EU-member government of Cyprus - it's unclear what will happen to that arrangement if Cyprus joins Schengen.)

Although joining the EU usually means a country has to work towards joining the Schengen Area too, there were two EU members that negotiated special exceptions from the Schengen agreements, so they wouldn't ever have to become Schengen countries. One of the them, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK), left the EU altogether in early 2020.

Current EU countries that are Schengen-exempt

 Ireland

Former EU countries that were Schengen-exempt

 United Kingdom (UK)

For more on which countries (and territories) might be integrated into the Schengen Area in the near future, see our latest article about Schengen expansions. 

Related Articles:

• Map: Which Countries are in the European Union, Which Aren't, and Which Want to Join?
• Which Countries Use the Euro Currency? (Map of the Eurozone)