Which countries are in Schengen in 2026?

The Schengen 90/180 rule treats 29 countries as one. A day in Lisbon, a day in Oslo and a day in Sofia all come out of the same 90 days — while a day in Dublin or Nicosia comes out of none of them. So before you can count your days, you need the list. Here it is for 2026, with the changes of the last few years and the places that look like Schengen but aren't.

The 29 Schengen countries

25 EU countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.

4 non-EU countries: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.

For a short stay, every day in any of them counts toward the same limit: no more than 90 days in any 180-day period, across the whole area. That is the Schengen 90/180 rule. The window rolls — it looks back 180 days from every single day, not from your first entry — which we've shown on a calendar, and both your arrival and departure days count in full.

What changed recently

Croatia joined on 1 January 2023.

Bulgaria and Romania came in in two steps: air and sea borders on 31 March 2024, land borders on 1 January 2025, when they became full members — the last countries to join. If you used to spend time in either one to let your Schengen count recover, that no longer works: their days now come out of the same 90.

Passport stamps are gone. Since 10 April 2026 the EU's Entry/Exit System (EES) has replaced manual stamping at Schengen's external borders. For non-EU travellers on a short stay, it records your entry and exit dates, your passport details and your fingerprints and face, and the European Commission says it allows the automatic detection of overstayers. In practice, your passport no longer tells you how many days you have used — but the border system knows. (What an overstay can mean is in this post.)

ETIAS has not started. The travel authorisation for visa-exempt visitors has been announced and delayed several times. The EU has said it will give several months' notice before it begins, so check the official ETIAS site before you travel rather than relying on a date you read online.

The two EU countries that aren't in Schengen

Ireland has an opt-out. It keeps its own visa and border rules and shares the Common Travel Area with the UK instead. Days in Ireland don't count toward your Schengen 90 — though Ireland has its own rules for long stays, and tax-residency tests if you stay a while.

Cyprus is the interesting one. It is legally committed to joining, it already takes part in Schengen cooperation, and in July 2026 the European Commission found it technically prepared. But the checks only go once the EU's member states decide it unanimously, and that decision hasn't been taken. Until then, Cyprus is outside, with its own count: 90 days in any 180, kept apart from your Schengen days. If you travel between Cyprus and the rest of the EU, you are tracking two separate 90s.

Small countries and territories

Effectively inside: Monaco, San Marino and Vatican City aren't Schengen members, but they have open borders with France and Italy, and in practice you are inside the zone while you are there.

Outside: Andorra isn't in Schengen; you reach it through France or Spain. Gibraltar is British and outside too.

Parts of Schengen countries that are outside Schengen:

• Denmark: the Faroe Islands and Greenland.

• Norway: Svalbard.

• France: the overseas regions — Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, Réunion and Mayotte.

• The Kingdom of the Netherlands: its Caribbean islands, such as Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten and Bonaire.

Not every island is outside, though: Spain's Canary Islands and Portugal's Madeira and Azores are part of Schengen, and so are your days there.

Quick answers

Who does the 90/180 rule apply to? Non-EU visitors on a short stay — whether you need a Schengen visa or travel visa-free. Citizens of the EU, the EEA and Switzerland aren't limited by it.

Does moving to another Schengen country reset my days? No. There are no border checks between Schengen countries, and none are needed: the 90 days are shared by all 29. Going from France to Spain to Norway is one continuous stay.

Does a layover count? If you stay in the international transit area of a Schengen airport and never pass passport control, you haven't entered the area. Once you go through passport control into Schengen, that day counts.

What about trips to Bulgaria or Romania before 2025? They only matter if they fall inside the 180 days you are looking back over, and in 2026 they no longer do. Any day there from now on counts.

I have a residence permit or a national visa for one country. Days you spend in that country under it follow its own rules, not the 90/180 count — though your days in the other Schengen countries still do. We'll cover this one in its own post.

Why the list matters for your count

Most mistakes with the 90/180 rule aren't arithmetic. They are a day in the wrong column: a week in Bulgaria treated as a break from Schengen, a stop in Cyprus counted as if it were Schengen, or a trip to Greenland counted as Denmark.

Track Country Days counts the 29 countries, plus Monaco, San Marino and Vatican City, as one Schengen total, and keeps the places outside — Ireland, Cyprus, Andorra, Gibraltar, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Svalbard and the overseas territories — as places of their own. The Schengen 90/180 count is free.

If your situation is different — say you hold a residence permit or a national visa for one Schengen country, whose days follow their own rules — Schengen Settings lets you take a country out of your count.

And if you'd rather not check every rule one by one, the new Visa & Tax Check compares your recorded days with more than 120 ready-made visa and tax rules for the places you've been in the last three years, including Schengen 90/180 and Cyprus's own 90-day count, and shows what is over, close or within the limit.

Schengen's membership will keep moving — Cyprus could join, and ETIAS will start at some point. For the current list, the European Commission's Schengen area page is the source we used, along with its page on the Entry/Exit System.

As always: this is day tracking, not legal advice. We count the days. Whether a rule applies to your nationality, visa or circumstances is a question for the authorities of the country concerned.