Difference between Countries and Issuers

A few months back the powers to be added issuers. This I believe dropped my country total. Presently I have 113 countries and 133 Issuers. So I ask what is the difference between Countries and Issuers? How many countries are there? For some reason 267 countries stick out in my head, awhile back I Googled how many independent monetary systems are there. I also have read that some members are shooting for 300 countries.
Is 200 countries an attainable goal and does that put me at 75% of all countries?

Within country list on Numista, Country is more to be seen seen as a section grouping related issuers while issuers are more about issuing authorities themselves.
For instance, you have Germany as a country (i.e. section gathering issuers related to Germany as a whole) and under that you have Germany, German states, Federal Republic, etc. that are issuers.

Totals of countries and issuers are displayed at top left of the Country list page here.

Thank you thats kinda what figured about issuers and countries. But when my 11 y/o nephew asked and my response wasnt so clear figured I better ask

It is done this way, because sometimes issuer was just a single city or even a house of some lords. You cannot call that a country, it is simply issuer. That would put a lot of deciding on admins, which would not be politically correct all the time. So as was said already, Countries are big sections, and issuers are everything else. You own anything from Germany, you have Germany country. You have Saxon and Hessen coin, you have two issuers and one Country.