Countries of the World
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148 free Countries of the World trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
50 free country trivia questions with answers. Think you know the world? This Countries of the World quiz tests your geography knowledge across continents, capitals and cultures. You will discover surprising facts about nations you thought you knew while identifying lesser-known countries that might stump you. The questions run from easy ones for kids and beginners (which country is Tokyo in) to hard country trivia on borders, languages and flags, so it works as a classroom warm-up, a family game or a pub quiz round. Every answer has been checked against a reference source, and each question shows its citation once you have answered.
30 of 148 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which Japanese city was once called Edo?
Tokyo
Tokyo: after the shogunate fell, Edo was renamed Tokyo, 'eastern capital', in 1868, and Emperor Meiji moved his court there from Kyoto.
Q 02Which country overtook its neighbour in 2023 to become the world's most populous?
India
India passed China in 2023 with over 1.4 billion people, a year after China's population began to shrink.
Q 03Which island country was known as Ceylon until 1972?
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka dropped the name Ceylon when it became a republic in 1972, yet its best-known export is still sold under the old name as Ceylon tea.
Q 04Falkland Islands banknotes are pegged at par to which currency?
Pound sterling
Pound sterling: the Falkland Islands pound trades at par with it, and British notes and coins are used interchangeably with local money on the islands.
Q 05Angel Falls, the world's tallest uninterrupted waterfall, is in which country?
Venezuela
Venezuela's Angel Falls is named after US pilot Jimmie Angel, whose plane sank into the marshy summit of Auyán-tepui, leaving him to walk out for 11 days.
Q 06Which purpose-built city became Australia's capital as a compromise between Sydney and Melbourne?
Canberra
Canberra: the deal put the capital in New South Wales but at least 100 miles from Sydney, with Melbourne as the temporary seat while it was built.
Q 07Which country's flag carries a green cedar tree between two red stripes?
Lebanon
Lebanon's cedar is its national emblem, and in the Bible, King Solomon had cedars of Lebanon cut to build the Temple in Jerusalem.
Q 08The temple complex of Angkor Wat is in which country?
Cambodia
Cambodia's Angkor Wat was built in the 12th century as a Hindu temple to Vishnu, then gradually turned into a Buddhist temple.
Q 09The ancient trading city of Timbuktu is in which modern country?
Mali
Mali's Timbuktu was a centre of Islamic scholarship in the 14th century, and its name became a byword in English for somewhere impossibly remote.
Q 10What is the official language of Brazil?
Portuguese
Portuguese: the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas split the New World along a line, and the eastern coast of what is now Brazil fell on Portugal's side.
Q 11Reykjavík, the world's northernmost national capital, is the capital of which country?
Iceland
Reykjavík, Iceland's capital, keeps the title because Nuuk, a few kilometres further north, is the capital of Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark.
Q 12What is the smallest country in the world by area?
Vatican City
Vatican City, an enclave inside Rome, only became an independent state in 1929, under the Lateran Treaty.
Q 13Which African country was formerly known as Abyssinia?
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, long called Abyssinia in the West, surprised the world by defeating an Italian invasion at Adwa in 1896 and stayed independent through the scramble for Africa.
Q 21Which country has been the world's biggest cocoa producer since the late 1970s?
Ivory Coast
Ivory Coast has led world cocoa production since the late 1970s, after a farm boom driven by President Félix Houphouët-Boigny's push to grow exports.
Q 22Which country, bordered by three oceans, has the world's longest coastline?
Canada
Canada: its shoreline wraps around a vast Arctic archipelago, and depending on the method, estimates of its length run from about 202,000 to 265,000 km.
Q 23What is the only country that borders both France and Brazil?
Suriname
Suriname's eastern neighbour is French Guiana, an overseas department of France, and its southern neighbour is Brazil; no other country touches both.
Q 14Which city, on the Ontario side of the river opposite Gatineau, is the Canadian capital?
Ottawa
Ottawa was chosen as capital by Queen Victoria in 1857, partly because it lay far from the US border.
Q 15Easter Island, famous for its moai statues, is a territory of which country?
Chile
Chile annexed Easter Island in 1888, then rented most of it out as a sheep ranch, and the Rapa Nui were confined to the village of Hanga Roa until the 1960s.
Q 16Which country has the world's only non-rectangular national flag?
Nepal
Nepal's flag joins two stacked pennants that were once flown separately by rival branches of its ruling dynasty.
Q 17Which currency, like the yuan and won, means 'round'?
Yen
Yen: all three names come from the same written character for 'round', first used for the round silver dollar coins traders brought to East Asia.
Q 18Which Central American country abolished its army in 1948?
Costa Rica
Costa Rica's José Figueres abolished the army after winning the 1948 civil war, and the 1949 constitution banned a permanent army.
Q 19Which Caribbean island nation is named after a virgin martyr of Syracuse?
Saint Lucia
Saint Lucia is named after Lucy of Syracuse, and rival European powers fought over the island so often that it changed hands again and again.
Q 20What is the capital of South Korea?
Seoul
Seoul was left largely in ruins by the Korean War, yet about half of South Koreans now live in its metropolitan area.
Q 24Which Asian country escaped European colonisation as a buffer between Britain and France?
Thailand
Thailand, then called Siam, stayed free by playing rival colonial powers off against each other, and it is the only Southeast Asian country never colonised.
Q 25Which country was historically known as Persia?
Iran
Iran was known abroad as Persia until 1935, when Reza Shah asked foreign governments to use the country's own name instead.
Q 26Lake Baikal, the deepest lake in the world, is in which country?
Russia
Russia's Lake Baikal is smaller in area than Lake Superior, yet it is so deep that it holds more water than all five North American Great Lakes combined.
Q 27In a June 1946 referendum, which country voted to become a republic?
Italy
Italy: the republic won by about nine points, with the industrial north voting firmly for it and the rural south mostly for the king.
Q 28Nairobi is the capital of which country?
Kenya
Kenya's capital, Nairobi, began as a depot on the Uganda Railway, and within a decade it had replaced Mombasa as capital of the East Africa Protectorate.
Q 29Which country is home to the ancient city of Petra?
Jordan
Jordan: Petra was the Nabataeans' rock-cut capital, and in 1812 explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt got in by posing as a pilgrim.
Q 30Which Scandinavian country's North Cape is a famous place to watch the midnight sun?
Norway
Norway's North Cape is often billed as Europe's northernmost point, but the nearby Knivskjellodden headland actually reaches further north.