At present, five states explicitly claim in their constitutions to be socialist, are U.N. member states, and are administered and governed by single communist parties - the People's Republic of China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the Republic of Cuba, the Lao People's Democratic Republic, and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

Simultaneously, several communist groups are engaged in ongoing armed conflicts with existing recognised states. These include the CPP–NPA–NDF rebellion in the Philippines, various Naxalite insurgencies in India, the conflict between the Peruvian government and the Communist Party of Peru, the conflict between the Paraguayan government and the Paraguayan People’s Army, as well as the conflict between several far-left guerilla groups and the Colombian government.

The question asks: How many communist states will there be in 2050?

For the purposes of this question, "communist state" will be defined as a United Nations member state (1) which includes explicit references to communism or socialism in its constitution (2), and is administered and governed by a single party describing its ideology as Marxist, Marxist-Leninist, Marxist-Leninist-Maoist, or a variant thereof tracing its ideological lineage to Marxism (3). Presently, only five countries match these three conditions.

This question will resolve as the number of countries matching these conditions on 2050-01-01.