World Facts
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148 free World Facts trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
50 free world trivia questions with answers. World trivia for kids should be about the amazing stuff: the deepest trench in the ocean, the country that is landlocked twice over, the flag that is not a rectangle, the mountain that is still growing. This quiz starts with questions an 8-to-12-year-old can get right, then climbs to facts about demographics, currencies and natural wonders that catch adults out too. There are 148 questions covering geography, world records, languages, cultures and the odd corners of the map, so it works as a classroom warm-up, a family car-ride game or a world trivia game at a quiz night. Questions arrive one at a time with four choices, instant scoring and a one-line explanation. Every answer has been checked against a reference source, and the citation shows under each explanation, so a back-seat argument can be settled on the spot.
30 of 148 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the smallest country in the world by land area?
Vatican City
Vatican City became a state only in 1929, when Mussolini's Lateran Treaty ended nearly 60 years in which popes had refused to leave the Vatican.
Q 02Which country has the longest coastline in the world?
Canada
Canada's coastline is the longest because it wraps the shores of the Arctic Archipelago, more than 36,000 islands in the far north.
Q 03What is the capital of Mongolia?
Ulaanbaatar
Ulaanbaatar began in 1639 as a mobile Buddhist monastery that changed location 29 times before settling at its present site in 1778.
Q 04Which river is the longest in the world?
Nile
The Nile is traditionally ranked longest, though some scientists argue for the Amazon; damming it at Aswan forced Egypt to cut the Abu Simbel temples into blocks and move them uphill.
Q 05Which country overtook China in 2023 to become the world's most populous?
India
India's lead rests on UN estimates, because its 2021 census was postponed by the COVID-19 pandemic and rescheduled for 2026–27.
Q 06Counting its overseas territories, which country spans the most time zones?
France
France spans 12 time zones because its overseas territories, from French Polynesia to Réunion, keep their own local clocks.
Q 07What is the driest non-polar desert in the world?
Atacama
The Atacama's high, dry Chajnantor plateau is why astronomers built the ALMA telescope array there, since water vapour absorbs the signals it studies.
Q 08Which lake is the deepest in the world?
Baikal
Lake Baikal froze so hard in the winter of 1920 that the retreating anti-Bolshevik White Army marched across it, and many soldiers died of exposure.
Q 09What is the capital of New Zealand?
Wellington
Wellington replaced Auckland as capital in 1865, partly to reassure the gold-rich South Island, where settlers talked of forming a separate colony.
Q 10As of 2026, which country has the most UNESCO World Heritage Sites?
Italy
Italy leads the list, and one of its sites, Venice, began charging day-trippers a €5 entry fee in 2024 as it grappled with overtourism.
Q 11As of 2026, counting second-language speakers, which language has the most speakers?
English
English leads because most of its speakers learned it as a second language; counting native speakers alone, Mandarin Chinese has far more.
Q 12Which waterfall has the highest uninterrupted drop in the world?
Angel Falls
Angel Falls is named after US pilot Jimmie Angel, whose plane sank into the mud atop the falls' mountain, forcing an 11-day trek back to the nearest settlement.
Q 13As of 2026, which country produces the most coffee in the world?
Brazil
Brazil grew so much coffee that in 1906 its coffee states agreed to buy up surplus harvests and hold them back to prop up world prices.
Q 21Which is Africa's largest lake by surface area?
Victoria
Lake Victoria averages only about 40 m deep, and sediment cores show it has dried up completely at least three times since it formed.
Q 22As of 2026, which is Africa's most populous country?
Nigeria
Nigeria moved its capital from Lagos, its biggest city, to purpose-built Abuja in 1991, a site chosen partly to be neutral among its ethnic groups.
Q 23What is the largest island in the world (excluding continental landmasses)?
Greenland
Greenland got its name from the explorer Erik the Red, who supposedly hoped a pleasant name would attract settlers to the icy island.
Q 14Which Asian currency was the world's third most traded in 2022, behind only the dollar and euro?
Yen
The yen came under such heavy selling that Japan's government intervened in currency markets in 2022 and again in 2024 to slow its fall.
Q 15Which mountain is the tallest in the world measured from base to peak?
Mauna Kea
Mauna Kea is sacred in Native Hawaiian tradition, and plans to build the Thirty Meter Telescope on its summit sparked years of protests and dozens of arrests.
Q 16The rose-red Nabataean city of Petra, whose Greek name simply means 'rock', is carved into cliffs in which country?
Jordan
Jordan's Petra was unknown to the western world until 1812, when Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, travelling as 'Sheikh Ibrahim', reached it.
Q 17Which European country has about a quarter of its land below sea level?
Netherlands
The Netherlands has about 26% of its land below sea level, mostly because peat was dug away or land was reclaimed from the sea.
Q 18Which country is home to the most active volcanoes?
Indonesia
Indonesia's Mount Tambora erupted so violently in 1815 that its sulfur haze cooled the planet, making 1816 the 'Year Without a Summer'.
Q 19What is the official currency of South Africa?
Rand
The rand takes its name from the Witwatersrand, the gold-rich ridge on which Johannesburg was built.
Q 20Which country is home to the pyramids of Meroë, built by the kings of Kush?
Sudan
Sudan holds the Meroë pyramids of the kings of Kush, whose 25th Dynasty once conquered and ruled Egypt itself.
Q 24Captain Cook's ship Endeavour ran aground on which reef?
Great Barrier
The Great Barrier Reef holed Endeavour in 1770, and Cook's crew threw six of her guns overboard to lighten her so she could float free.
Q 25Which country topped the CIA World Factbook's life expectancy ranking in 2024?
Monaco
Monaco's lead of about 89.8 years is a CIA estimate; the UN's own 2023 figures put the principality nearer 86 years.
Q 26What is the largest desert in the world?
Antarctic
The Antarctic counts because deserts are defined by scant precipitation, not heat, and at about 14.2 million km² it edges out the Arctic.
Q 27Which country shares land borders with 14 others, tying with Russia for the most in the world?
China
China officially runs on Beijing Time alone, so many people in far-western Xinjiang keep an unofficial local time of their own.
Q 28Brazil, South America's largest and most populous country, has which European language as its official tongue?
Portuguese
Portuguese spread with colonial rule, and in 1808 Portugal's royal court fled Napoleon to Rio de Janeiro, which served as the empire's capital for 13 years.
Q 29Which is Japan's largest island, home to Tokyo and Kyoto?
Honshu
Honshu is linked to Hokkaido by the undersea Seikan Tunnel, pushed ahead after five ferries sank in a 1954 typhoon, killing 1,430 passengers.
Q 30What is the deepest point in the world's oceans?
Mariana Trench
The Mariana Trench's Challenger Deep went 52 years without a crewed visit after the first dive in 1960, until film director James Cameron piloted a solo descent in 2012.