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50 free World Population trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Eight billion people sounds abstract until you start asking where they all are: which continent is youngest, which country's births have dropped below one per woman, which territory squeezes 720,000 people into 33 square kilometres, and which has 35 residents. Population is the rare trivia subject where the obvious guess is usually wrong. These 50 questions run from the first billion to the UN's projected peak: the milestone babies, the megacities and the most and least crowded places on Earth, fertility and ageing records, the thinkers who panicked about overpopulation, and the history of counting people, from ancient tax registers and medieval surveys to the modern decennial census. Every answer is ranked or dated so it stays true, and every explanation adds a fact the question left out. Play it solo, use it as a geography round for a class or a pub quiz, or print it and hand it round.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The United Nations marked the 'Day of Eight Billion' on 15 November of which year?
2022
2022 was the year humanity passed eight billion, only eleven years after the seven-billion mark was reached.
Q 02Which country, in the same year the world passed eight billion, recorded its first population fall since 1961?
China
China's population fell that year for the first time since 1961, and the UN's 2024 forecast has it shrinking to 639 million by 2100, less than half its 2022 size.
Q 03Which country has the world's highest median age, with more than 29% of its people over 65 as of 2025?
Japan
Japan's population is the oldest on Earth, its fertility rate of 1.2 is far below the 2.1 replacement level, and it is already shrinking.
Q 04Which country's fertility rate fell to 0.72 births per woman in 2023, the lowest in the world?
South Korea
South Korea's 0.72 is barely a third of the level needed to keep a population stable, and it has had the OECD's steepest fall in working-age population.
Q 05Which continent has the youngest population in the world, with a median age of under 20 years?
Africa
Africa's median age was 19.7 in 2012 against a world figure of 30.4, and its population is projected to pass 3.8 billion by 2100.
Q 06Roughly what share of the human population lives in the Northern Hemisphere, which holds most of Earth's land?
87%
About 87% of people live north of the equator, some 6.4 billion of the 7.3 billion alive in 2015.
Q 07Which pandemic drove world population down from about 443 million in 1340 to under 375 million by 1400?
Black Death
The Black Death era cut humanity by roughly a fifth, with the Indian subcontinent losing the most, and Europe's numbers took 200 years to recover.
Q 08Which continent's population swings from about 5,000 in summer to around 1,000 in winter, all at research stations?
Antarctica
Antarctica has no permanent residents at all: tourism, fishing and research are the only human activities there.
Q 09Which country passed 40 million people only in 2023, with immigration the main driver of its growth?
Canada
Canada reached 40 million in 2023 and 41 million a year later, with immigration the main driver of its growth.
Q 10The UN estimates world population first reached one billion in which year, 123 years before it hit two billion?
1804
1804 is the UN's date for the first billion; the second took until 1927, but the third arrived just 33 years later in 1960.
Q 11Danica May Camacho, one of the symbolic 'seven-billionth' babies chosen in 2011, was born in which country?
Philippines
The Philippines' Danica May Camacho arrived in a Manila hospital just before midnight on the eve of the Day of Seven Billion, alongside symbolic babies in India and Sri Lanka.
Q 12Adnan Mević, named by the UN as the symbolic six-billionth person in 1999, was born in which city?
Sarajevo
Sarajevo's Adnan Mević was welcomed as the six-billionth baby by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, two minutes after midnight on 12 October 1999.
Q 13World Population Day falls on which date, the anniversary of the 'Day of Five Billion' in 1987?
July 11
Q 21Which British overseas territory had only 35 permanent residents in 2023, the fewest of any territory in the world?
Pitcairn Islands
Pitcairn Islands' 35 people descend mainly from nine Bounty mutineers and twelve Tahitian women who landed in 1790.
Q 22Which Pacific island nation counted just 10,643 people at its 2022 census, one of the tiniest national populations?
Tuvalu
Tuvalu ranks 194th of the world's countries by population, with only Niue and Vatican City smaller.
Q 23Which inland municipality, roughly the size of Austria, is counted as the world's largest city proper by population?
Chongqing
Chongqing's 82,403-square-kilometre municipality holds over 30 million residents, though it is not the most populous urban area.
July 11 became World Population Day after public interest in Five Billion Day in 1987, the estimated date humanity passed five billion.
Q 14UN projections published in 2024 have world population peaking in the 2080s at roughly what size?
Around 10.3 billion
Around 10.3 billion people is the expected peak in 2084, after which the UN sees a slow decline as global fertility sinks towards 1.8.
Q 15World population growth peaked in the mid-1960s at roughly what annual rate, more than double the 0.9% of 2023?
2.2%
2.2% a year was the peak; growth has since slid to 0.9%, about 74 million extra people a year, and could turn negative by 2100.
Q 16Which landlocked Sahel country has the world's highest fertility rate, with nearly half its people under 15?
Niger
Niger's rate of about 6.5 births per woman has left 49.7% of its population under the age of 15.
Q 17Spread over all Earth's land, the 8.2 billion people alive in 2025 average roughly how many per square kilometre?
50 per km²
Just 50 per km² is the planet's average density, though nearly 60% of all people are squeezed into Asia.
Q 18Which South Asian country of over 170 million people is the most densely populated large country in the world?
Bangladesh
Bangladesh packs a headline 1,265 people into each square kilometre, ranking fifth most populous in Asia and eighth in the world.
Q 19Which territory west of Hong Kong packs about 720,000 people into 33 square kilometres, the densest region on Earth?
Macau
Macau, a Portuguese colony until its 1999 handover, has built two-thirds of its total area on land reclaimed from the sea.
Q 20Which self-governing Danish territory, home to about 56,000 people, is the least densely populated country in the world?
Greenland
Greenland's 56,583 residents cluster on the south-west coast, leaving most of the island empty.
Q 24Which city on the Buriganga River is widely considered the most densely populated built-up urban area in the world?
Dhaka
Dhaka has swelled to an estimated 36.6 million people, most of them rural migrants, and ranks among the fastest-growing megacities.
Q 25Which Brazilian state capital is the most populous city in both the Western and Southern Hemispheres?
São Paulo
São Paulo is the most populous city in the whole of the Americas, and its name is simply Portuguese for 'Saint Paul'.
Q 26Which capital, first documented in 1147, is the most populous city lying entirely within Europe?
Moscow
Moscow is also Europe's largest urban and metropolitan area, its metro region sprawling over 26,000 square kilometres.
Q 27Which capital anchors the largest urban agglomeration in the Arab world, with more than 22 million people?
Cairo
Cairo's city proper holds 9.8 million, but Greater Cairo tops 22 million and is the largest urban area in the Middle East too.
Q 28Which new capital in East Kalimantan is being built to relieve Jakarta of overpopulation and land sinking?
Nusantara
Nusantara, next to the port of Balikpapan in East Kalimantan, is planned as a national capital region at provincial level.
Q 29The UN's World Urbanization Prospects report defines a megacity as an urban agglomeration above what population?
Over 10 million inhabitants
Over 10 million inhabitants is the UN's yardstick for a megacity; academics, the OECD and the European Council each draw the line differently.
Q 30By the UN's count, city dwellers first outnumbered rural residents worldwide in which year, up from 15% in 1900?
2007
2007 was the tipping point when over 50% of people lived in cities, a share that had stood at just 15% at the start of the 20th century.