Nathaniel,
my requirements are pretty specific – I want to create thematic maps about agriculture – therefore my list might not be interesting for others at all. Anyway, my list would be a mixture of top agriculture commodity exporters and countries with the largest arable land area. Something like this (probably a bit too Euro-centric):
DE|Germany
US|USA
NL|Netherlands
IT|Italy
FR|France
GB|United Kingdom
DK|Denmark
RU|Russia
PL|Poland
ZA|South Africa
BR|Brazil
AR|Argentina
ES|Spain
UA|Ukraine
CA|Canada
CN|China
AU|Australia
Jan
P.S.:
I noticed recently that google chart supports admin1 levels now (all countries afaik). But unfortunately as a small png only. That is my problem: google is too small and gadm/naturalearthdata far too big to create a simple svg based website.