Tuvalu Trivia
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49 free Tuvalu trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Tuvalu is the fourth-smallest country in the world, the least visited, and one of the first that rising seas could erase, and this quiz packs the whole atoll nation in: the Polynesian settlers, the eel and the flounder who made the islands, Mendaña's sighting in 1568, the ship's cargo owner who gave the Ellice Islands their name, the Peruvian blackbirders, the British protectorate, the American airfields of World War II, the 1974 vote to split from the Gilberts and independence on 1 October 1978. Easy questions ask for the capital, the ocean and the region; the harder ones want the meaning of the name 'Tuvalu', the highest point above sea level, the internet domain that pays the bills, the treaty that lets 280 Tuvaluans a year move to Australia, the minister who gave a speech knee-deep in the sea and the Royal Society expedition that drilled into Funafuti to test Darwin. There is also the nine-star flag, kilikiti and te ano, pulaka pits, the trust fund, the seafarers and the plan to copy the whole country into the metaverse. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the country, its atolls and its history, and each question carries the sentence that backs it up.
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Tuvalu belongs to which cultural region of Oceania?
Polynesia
Tuvalu is part of Polynesia: its people descend from Polynesian voyagers who spread out from Samoa and Tonga, and Tuvaluan is a Polynesian language closely related to Samoan and Tokelauan.
Q 02The name 'Tuvalu' means what in the local language?
Eight standing together
Tuvalu means 'eight standing together' in Tuvaluan, for the eight islands that were traditionally inhabited; tiny Niulakita was settled only in 1949, by people from Niutao.
Q 03Before independence Tuvalu was known by what colonial name?
The Ellice Islands
The Ellice Islands took their name from Edward Ellice, a British MP and merchant, after whom the main atoll was named in 1819; a hydrographer later applied the label to the whole group.
Q 04From 1916 Tuvalu was ruled jointly with which neighbouring island group as a single British colony?
The Gilbert Islands
The Gilbert Islands, today's Kiribati, were joined with Tuvalu's islands in one British colony from 1916; a 1974 referendum chose separation, and Tuvalu became a separate British colony on 1 October 1975.
Q 05In which year did Tuvalu become fully independent?
1978
Tuvalu became fully independent on 1 October 1978, having been a separate colony since 1975, and remained a Commonwealth realm with the British monarch as head of state.
Q 06Tuvalu's internet country code, a major source of government revenue, is which two letters?
.tv
Its resemblance to 'television' makes it valuable; by 2019 royalties provided 8.4% of government revenue. Verisign managed it until 2021, then GoDaddy.
Q 07How many stars appear on the flag of Tuvalu, alongside the Union Jack?
Nine
Nine stars, one for each of Tuvalu's nine islands, are arranged roughly as the islands lie on the map; a 1995 redesign dropped the Union Jack, but the original flag was restored in 1997.
Q 08What is the highest point in Tuvalu above sea level?
4.6 metres
Tuvalu's highest point is just 4.6 metres above sea level, on the southern reef island of Niulakita; with land so low, sea-level rise threatens the whole country.
Q 09By annual visitor arrivals, Tuvalu has often been ranked as what?
Least visited country in the world
Tuvalu has often topped lists of the least visited country in the world, with only about 2,000 tourist arrivals a year in the 2010s and just a few flights a week into the capital.
Q 10Per the 2022 census, Tuvalu's population was about how many?
10,600
The 2022 census counted 10,643 people, about 10,600; among sovereign states only Vatican City has fewer, and roughly six in ten Tuvaluans live on the capital atoll.
Q 11In November 2022 Tuvalu announced it would be the first country to do what?
Build a digital copy of itself in the metaverse
At the COP27 summit in November 2022, foreign minister Simon Kofe announced that Tuvalu would build a digital copy of itself in the metaverse, so its culture and statehood could survive whatever happens to the physical islands.
Q 12Tuvalu's minister Simon Kofe made headlines at COP26 in 2021 by delivering a speech while standing where?
Knee-deep in seawater
Kofe recorded his COP26 address in a suit and tie, standing knee-deep in seawater at a lectern off the capital's shore; the image became a symbol of the climate frontline.
Q 13How many Tuvaluans a year may migrate to Australia under the 2023 Falepili Union treaty?
Q 21In Tuvalu, what is a maneapa?
A traditional open meeting hall
A maneapa is a traditional open-sided meeting hall where each island's chiefs and elders deliberate; parliament itself sits in the Vaiaku maneapa on the capital atoll, and the halls also host feasts and weddings.
Q 22Which two currencies circulate in Tuvalu?
The Tuvaluan and Australian dollars
Tuvalu has minted its own coins since 1976 but never printed banknotes; the local dollar is pegged one-to-one to Australia's.
Q 23Which countries were the main founding donors of the Tuvalu Trust Fund in 1987?
UK, Australia and New Zealand
280
The Falepili Union, named for a Tuvaluan word for good neighbourliness, lets up to 280 Tuvaluans a year settle in Australia; in return Australia gained a veto over Tuvalu's security agreements and pledged more adaptation funding.
Q 14In the Tuvaluan creation myth, the islands were made by an eel and which fish?
A flounder
Te Ali the flounder is the model for the flat atolls and te Pusi the eel for the coconut palms.
Q 15Which Spanish explorer became the first European to sight Tuvalu, passing the island of Nui in 1568?
Álvaro de Mendaña
Álvaro de Mendaña sighted Nui in January 1568 and named it Isla de Jesús; on his second Pacific voyage in 1595 he also passed Niulakita.
Q 16Christianity reached Tuvalu in 1861 thanks to Elekana, a Cook Islands deacon who arrived how?
Drifting eight weeks in a storm-blown canoe
He landed at Nukulaelae and started preaching. Samoan pastors who followed shaped the language and music of the islands.
Q 17In 1862-63 slave ships from which country carried off hundreds of people from the southern atolls?
Peru
Nukulaelae lost about 250 of its 300 people to the 'blackbirders', who were filling a labour shortage in Peru.
Q 18Which country's forces built WWII airfields on three of the atolls to stage the assault on Tarawa?
The United States
United States Marines landed on the main atoll in October 1942 and Seabees built airstrips there and on Nanumea and Nukufetau; bombers used them to strike Tarawa and Makin in 1943, and the main strip later became Tuvalu's airport.
Q 19In the 1890s the Royal Society drilled the main atoll to test whose theory of atoll formation?
Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin's subsidence theory held that atolls form as reefs grow upward on a sinking volcano; the Royal Society's 1896-98 borings, one led by Edgeworth David, reached about 340 metres of shallow-water reef rock, supporting him.
Q 20How many members were elected to Tuvalu's parliament in the January 2024 election?
16
The January 2024 election returned 16 members, two from each island constituency; Tuvalu has no political parties, so campaigns run on family ties and personal reputation.
The UK, Australia and New Zealand put up most of the fund's initial capital of about A$27 million in 1987, with smaller sums from Japan, South Korea and Tuvalu itself; its earnings help balance the national budget.
Q 24Tuvalu's national anthem, 'Tuvalu mo te Atua', means what in English?
Tuvalu for the Almighty
'Tuvalu mo te Atua' means 'Tuvalu for the Almighty'; Afaese Manoa wrote both the words and the music, and it became the national anthem at independence.
Q 25What is the name of Tuvalu's traditional dance, performed at community celebrations?
Fatele
The fatele is Tuvalu's traditional dance: singers seated around a wooden box or tin drum repeat a song faster and faster while rows of standing dancers act out its words.
Q 26Tuvalu made its Olympic debut at which Games?
Beijing 2008
Tuvalu first competed at Beijing 2008 with a weightlifter and two sprinters, a year after the IOC recognised its national Olympic committee in 2007.
Q 27Tuvalu's first-ever gold at the Pacific Games, in 2015, came in which sport?
Powerlifting
Telupe Iosefa won powerlifting gold in the 120 kg class at the 2015 Pacific Games in Port Moresby, Tuvalu's first gold at the Games; Tuau Lapua Lapua had won weightlifting gold at the 2013 Pacific Mini Games.
Q 28Pulaka, Tuvalu's staple root crop, is grown in what unusual way?
In pits of compost dug below the water table
The atolls have almost no soil, so islanders dig down to fresh groundwater. Rising salt water now threatens the pits.
Q 29Which denomination is the established faith of Tuvalu, followed by about 86% of the people?
Congregational Christian
The Congregational Christian Church of Tuvalu, Te Ekalesia Kelisiano Tuvalu, grew out of the London Missionary Society's work and is the established state church; its Calvinist, congregational structure dates from the Samoan pastors who followed the first missionaries.
Q 30The island of Nui differs from the rest of Tuvalu because its people speak a language close to what?
Gilbertese
Nui's people speak a dialect of Gilbertese, the language of Kiribati, because the island was settled from Kiribati's islands to the north; the rest of Tuvalu speaks Tuvaluan.