Get a list of countries for a dropdown

This is a surprisingly difficult question to answer, as it's not all as simple as just adding the System.Globalization namespace and getting stuck in.

It appears that there are in fact a large amount of incorrect / incomplete answers on the subject.

There is a web service that you could add and call which may prove to be more up-to-date than the .NET framework itself, but the easiest, fastest and WORKING method of adding countries to a drop-down is to use the method mentioned in this StackOverflow question:

	using System.Collections.Generic;
	using System.Globalization;
	public static IEnumerable<string> GetCountryList()
	{
	List<string> cultureList = new List<string>();
	CultureInfo[] cultures = CultureInfo.GetCultures(CultureTypes.SpecificCultures);
	foreach (CultureInfo culture in cultures)
	{
	RegionInfo region = new RegionInfo(culture.LCID);
	if (!(cultureList.Contains(region.EnglishName)))
	{
	cultureList.Add(region.EnglishName);
	}
	}
	return cultureList;
	}

view raw GetCountryList.cs hosted with ❤ by GitHub

It's a life-saver!