50 free Midwest trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
40 free Midwest trivia questions with answers. Midwest trivia gets treated as filler. It should not be: this is the region that holds a fifth of the world's surface fresh water, feeds much of the country, gave rock and roll its name, and invented deep-dish pizza, Kool-Aid and a chilli that is served on spaghetti. These forty questions run through the geography and demographics, then the landmarks and the food. There are questions on the man who wanted Mount Rushmore to feature Sacagawea instead of presidents, the architect who drew the Gateway Arch in 1947, the four-lap qualifying rule at the Indy 500, and the myth about what is in Cincinnati chili. Every answer is written against a sourced account with the sentence that establishes it attached, and the difficulty runs from easy city-spotting to detail most residents would not know. Good for a regional quiz night, a road trip, or settling an argument about pizza.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which is the most populous city in the Midwest?
Chicago
Its metropolitan area spreads across three states.
Q 02Which Midwestern metropolitan area is the second largest in the region?
Detroit
Cincinnati, Kansas City and Cleveland follow it in the regional rankings.
Q 03Which ancestry is most commonly reported in the Midwest?
German
Nearly 23% of the region reports it, and in North Dakota it passes 30% of the population.
Q 04Which Midwestern state is the most populous and racially diverse?
Illinois
It is also ranked the state most representative of overall US demographics on several measures.
Q 05What is the Midwest's nickname, thanks to its grain harvests?
The nation's breadbasket
Rich soil plus the steel plough made corn, wheat, soybeans, oats and barley possible at scale.
Q 06Which population movement transformed Midwestern cities in the early 20th century?
The Great Migration
African Americans left the South for northern and western cities, changing their demographics entirely.
Q 07Which Cleveland disc jockey popularised the term 'rock and roll' in 1951?
Alan Freed
He started playing the music and gave the genre the name that stuck.
Q 08What was the median household income in the Midwest in 2022?
$70,283
That was slightly below the 2022 national figure of $74,755.
Q 09Which fact about presidential elections held true for Ohio through the 2024 election?
No Republican has won without it
Through 2024 that record made it the classic battleground, though margins widened in the 2010s and 2020s.
Q 10How many Great Lakes are there?
Five
Hydrologically, Michigan and Huron are really one body of water joined at the Straits of Mackinac.
Q 11What share of the world's surface fresh water do the Great Lakes hold?
More than 20 per cent
They are the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by area and second by volume.
Q 12Which two Great Lakes are hydrologically a single body of water?
Michigan and Huron
They join at the Straits of Mackinac, which is why their water levels move together.
Q 13Where was deep-dish pizza invented?
Pizzeria Uno in Chicago
Ike Sewell and Richard Riccardo founded it in 1943, and the recipe was printed two years later.
Q 21Whose idea was the Mount Rushmore carving originally?
The state historian, Doane Robinson
He had wanted figures from the American West, including Lewis and Clark, Sacagawea and Red Cloud.
Q 22Which figures did the original proposer want carved instead of presidents?
Heroes of the American West
Lewis and Clark, Sacagawea and the Oglala Lakota chief Red Cloud were on his list.
Q 23In which year did work on Mount Rushmore begin?
1927
The four faces were completed between 1934 and 1939.
Q 14In which year was deep-dish pizza invented?
1943
The first published recipe used a dough made with scalded milk, butter and sugar.
Q 15Which two later pizzerias were founded by sons of that restaurant's original chef?
Lou Malnati's and Pizano's
Rudy Malnati's sons opened them in 1971 and 1991 respectively.
Q 16What is that Ohio chilli usually served on?
Spaghetti or hot dogs
The hot dog version is called a coney, and the whole thing was invented by immigrant restaurateurs in the 1920s.
Q 17Which popular myth about that Ohio chilli is false?
That it contains chocolate
The actual spices include cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, clove, cumin and bay leaf.
Q 18Where did the brothers who created that Ohio chilli emigrate from?
The Balkans
Tom and John Kiradjieff left a village in what is now Greece after the Balkan Wars and the First World War.
Q 19In which state is Mount Rushmore?
South Dakota
It sits in the Black Hills, about 20 miles southwest of Keystone.
Q 20Who sculpted Mount Rushmore?
Gutzon Borglum
He called it the Shrine of Democracy, and his son Lincoln finished the job after his death in 1941.
Q 24What geometric form does the St. Louis monument take?
A weighted catenary arch
It is clad in stainless steel and is the world's tallest arch.
Q 25Which architect designed the Gateway Arch?
Eero Saarinen
He drew it in 1947; construction ran from 1963 to 1965 and it opened to the public in 1967.
Q 26In which Midwestern city does the Gateway Arch stand?
St. Louis
It commemorates the westward expansion of the United States.
Q 27In which year was the Indianapolis 500 first run?
1911
Ray Harroun won it, and the race has paused only for the two world wars.
Q 28How many cars start the Indianapolis 500?
33
They line up in eleven rows of three, a tradition as old as the race itself.
Q 29What does the winner of the Indianapolis 500 traditionally drink?
Milk
The crowd also sings the chorus of 'Back Home Again in Indiana' before the start.
Q 30How many timed laps does Indy 500 qualifying require?
Four
Most oval races settle it on a single lap, which makes this one unusually punishing.