Countries Quiz — 50 Questions, Three Clues Each

Pyramids and the Sphinx · the Nile · a land mostly desert — which country?

Answer Egypt

Almost the entire population lives on a narrow strip along the river and its delta — a few percent of the land carrying nearly everyone. No other large country concentrates its people so tightly, and a map of its lights at night shows the river rather than the borders.

Mariachi music · cactus deserts · the ancient Aztec — which country?

Answer Mexico

Its full official name includes the word states, and it has thirty-two of them. It also recognizes dozens of indigenous languages alongside Spanish, several of which have more speakers than some European national languages.

Kangaroos and koalas · a giant coral reef · a continent that is a country — which one?

Answer Australia

The only country that is also a whole continent, which means it has no land border with anyone. It is also the only country to have fought a military campaign against birds and lost — an operation against emus in 1932 that was called off.

Wine and cheese · the Louvre · a blue-white-red tricolor — which country?

Answer France

Because of its overseas territories it spans more time zones than any other country — twelve or thirteen depending on the season. It is also the only country with land in every ocean.

Big Ben and double-decker buses · a royal family · tea culture — which country?

Answer The UK

It is a country made of countries, which is why the naming is so easy to get wrong: the part most people mean in everyday speech is one of four. Its parliament is also the model that gave the word for a legislature to much of the world.

The home of pizza and pasta · a boot-shaped peninsula · the heart of ancient Rome — which country?

Answer Italy

It has more places on the world heritage list than any other country, and it also contains two other sovereign states entirely within its borders. No other country contains even one.

Samba and football · the Amazon rainforest · Portuguese-speaking — which country?

Answer Brazil

It borders every country on its continent except two, which is more neighbors than almost any nation has. It is also the only one there where the language is Portuguese rather than Spanish.

The Great Wall · pandas · the birthplace of written characters used across East Asia — which country?

Answer China

It spans five geographical time zones and uses only one, so the sun rises three hours later in the west than the clocks suggest. That decision was made in 1949 and has never been reversed.

Cherry blossoms and sushi · Mount Fuji · an island nation in the Pacific — which country?

Answer Japan

A recount in 2023 more than doubled the official number of its islands, from under seven thousand to about fourteen thousand — not because anything appeared, but because the survey method changed.

Sausages and beer · the autobahn · a famous fallen wall — which country?

Answer Germany

Large stretches of its motorway network have no general speed limit, which is unusual enough that the network's name has entered other languages. The limitless sections are a minority of the total, and the recommended speed is legally meaningful in a crash.

Tom yum soup · elephants · golden Buddhist temples — which country?

Answer Thailand

It is the only country in its region never colonized by a European power, and its name means land of the free. It kept that independence partly by ceding territory at the edges to keep the center.

The home of curry · the Ganges · the birthplace of yoga — which country?

Answer India

It has no national language. The constitution names two for official use by the union and lists more than twenty others for the states, and currency notes carry over a dozen scripts.

Chocolate and watches · the Alps · famously neutral — which country?

Answer Switzerland

It has four official languages and requires by law enough shelter space for its entire population — a legacy of the Cold War that was never dismantled. Occupancy rates are still audited.

Tulips and windmills · a cyclist's paradise · the canals of Amsterdam — which country?

Answer The Netherlands

About a quarter of it lies below sea level, and a substantial part of the country is land that was under water and was pumped out. Its people are also on average the tallest in the world.

Hamburgers and Hollywood · the Grand Canyon · fifty states — which country?

Answer The USA

Its current flag was designed by a seventeen-year-old for a school project when two states were about to be added. He was given a B, and the grade was revised after the design was adopted.

The kiwi bird and the kiwi fruit · Lord of the Rings filming locations · two islands in the South Pacific — which country?

Answer New Zealand

It was the first country in the world to give women the vote, in 1893. The suffrage petition that achieved it was signed by roughly a quarter of the adult women in the country.

Beef steak and the pampas · Patagonia · the homeland of Maradona — which country?

Answer Argentina

Its name comes from the Latin for silver, given by Spanish explorers who believed a great river led to silver mines. It did not, and the name outlived the mistake by five centuries.

Viking descendants · the home of Lego · the Little Mermaid statue — which country?

Answer Denmark

The kingdom includes Greenland, which makes its total territory among the largest in the world even though the mainland is small. The relationship is a self-governing one, which is why the arrangement is so often misunderstood.

Feta and olives · the Parthenon · the land of ancient myths — which country?

Answer Greece

It has thousands of islands and only a couple of hundred are inhabited. Its coastline is among the longest of any country, which for a nation of that size is an extraordinary ratio.

The ao dai · Ha Long Bay · rivers of motorbikes — which country?

Answer Vietnam

It is the only country on its part of the mainland that writes with Latin letters. The system was developed by missionaries in the seventeenth century and became official only in the twentieth.

Auroras and saunas · nearly two hundred thousand lakes · Santa Claus Village — which country?

Answer Finland

It has been ranked the happiest country for several consecutive years, which its own people find puzzling. The survey asks people to rate their life on a ladder rather than to report cheerfulness, and those are different questions.

The Serengeti safari · Kilimanjaro · the island of Zanzibar — which country?

Answer Tanzania

Its name is a joining of two names: a mainland territory and an island, which united in 1964. The compound was made deliberately so that neither half's name would disappear.

The Maasai and the savanna · the Great Rift Valley · marathon champions — which country?

Answer Kenya

Its distance-running success is concentrated in one highland region rather than spread across the country, which is why the explanations reach for altitude, diet and culture in combination. Its capital also has a full national park inside the city limits.

Fjord coastlines · the Viking homeland · the midnight sun — which country?

Answer Norway

Counting the fjords and islands, its coastline runs to over a hundred thousand kilometers — long enough to circle the planet twice. Its state investment fund is among the largest in the world and owns a slice of most listed companies on earth.

Geysers and volcanoes · the land of ice and fire · more sheep than people — which country?

Answer Iceland

It has no mosquitoes, one of very few inhabited places that can say so. It also keeps a genealogy database covering most of the population, which is thorough enough that people use it to check whether a date is a distant cousin.

A maple leaf on the flag · Niagara Falls · a nation of ice hockey — which country?

Answer Canada

The current flag dates only from 1965, and the argument about adopting it was fierce enough to have its own name in the country's history. Before that it flew a British ensign.

Angel Falls, the world's tallest · a Caribbean coastline · vast oil reserves — which country?

Answer Venezuela

The waterfall is so tall that in the dry season the water breaks into mist before it reaches the bottom. It was named after a pilot who landed nearby in the 1930s, and his plane stayed on the plateau for thirty-three years.

The Galapagos Islands · a name that means 'equator' · the Andes — which country?

Answer Ecuador

Because the planet bulges at the equator, the summit of its highest mountain is the point on the surface farthest from the center of the earth — farther than Everest, which is higher above sea level but sits closer to the axis.

The Himalayas and Everest · the Sherpa people · Lumbini, birthplace of the Buddha — which country?

Answer Nepal

Its flag is the only national flag that is not a rectangle. The shape is two stacked pennants, and the constitution specifies its geometry with a set of construction instructions rather than a picture.

Over a thousand coral islands · overwater resorts · an Indian Ocean paradise — which country?

Answer The Maldives

It is the lowest country on earth: its highest natural point is under two and a half meters. That single fact is why it has been one of the loudest voices in international climate negotiations for decades.

Reggae music · Usain Bolt · a Caribbean island nation — which country?

Answer Jamaica

For its population it has produced more world-class sprinters than anywhere else, and the concentration is narrow enough that most of them trained at a handful of schools. Its national motto is about many people becoming one.

Taekwondo · its own alphabet, Hangul · a four-season peninsula — which country?

Answer South Korea

Its alphabet is one of the very few in the world with a known inventor, a known date and a stated purpose — the preface says it was made so that ordinary people could write what they meant. Most writing systems have no such document.

The siesta · the Iberian Peninsula · passionate festivals — which country?

Answer Spain

Its national anthem has no words. Attempts to add some have failed repeatedly, most recently in 2007, because no proposed text has been acceptable across the country's regions.

The Trans-Siberian Railway · Tchaikovsky's ballets · the Kremlin — which country?

Answer Russia

The railway that crosses it takes about a week end to end, and until 2018 every station along the whole line ran on the capital's time regardless of local daylight. Passengers had to work out the real hour themselves.

A gateway to the Sahara · maze-like medina alleys · mint tea — which country?

Answer Morocco

It was the first country to formally recognize the independence of the United States, in 1777, and the resulting treaty is the longest unbroken one that country has. The building housing its old consulate is the only foreign national landmark the US owns.

A crossroads of East and West · hot-air balloons over Cappadocia · the Grand Bazaar — which country?

Answer Turkey

Its largest city is the only one in the world on two continents. The country also asked in 2022 to be called by its own name for itself in international use, rather than the anglicized version.

Fado music · the egg tart · the great age of exploration — which country?

Answer Portugal

Its alliance with England, signed in 1386, is the oldest active alliance in the world. It is also where the great voyages of the fifteenth century were funded and planned, from a country with about a million people at the time.

Mozart's birthplace · the waltz · the Alpine hills of a famous musical — which country?

Answer Austria

The film musical set among its hills is barely known there. It was a modest release locally and the story it tells is not part of the national memory in the way visitors assume.

The Merlion statue · a famously clean city-state · a Southeast Asian financial hub — which country?

Answer Singapore

It is one of only three surviving city-states, and it did not seek independence — it was expelled from a federation in 1965, and its leader wept on television announcing it.

Cigars and vintage cars · salsa music · a socialist Caribbean island — which country?

Answer Cuba

The vintage cars are a consequence of an embargo that began in 1962: importing newer ones was largely blocked for half a century, so the existing fleet was kept running with improvised parts. Restrictions were eased in 2011.

Gross National Happiness · a dragon on the flag · a hidden Himalayan kingdom — which country?

Answer Bhutan

It measures national progress by a happiness index alongside economic figures, and it was the last country in the world to introduce television, in 1999. It is also carbon negative — it absorbs more than it emits.

'The Switzerland of South America' · mate tea culture · host of the first World Cup — which country?

Answer Uruguay

It hosted and won the first World Cup, in 1930, in a stadium built for the occasion in eight months. It also has one of the highest rates of literacy and lowest rates of corruption in its region.

The world's largest landlocked country · the Baikonur spaceport · nomadic traditions — which country?

Answer Kazakhstan

It is the largest landlocked country in the world, and the spaceport within it is leased to a neighboring state under an agreement running to 2050. Most crewed launches in history have left from there.

Avenues of baobab trees · lemurs · a huge island east of Africa — which country?

Answer Madagascar

Around ninety percent of its wildlife exists nowhere else on earth. It separated from other land masses roughly eighty-eight million years ago, and almost everything living on it evolved in isolation after that.

A small European nation · among the world's highest incomes · the 'L' in Benelux — which country?

Answer Luxembourg

In 2020 it became the first country to make all public transport free nationwide. It is also small enough that a large share of the people working there commute in daily from three neighboring countries.

A street-circuit Grand Prix · the Monte Carlo casino · a tiny Mediterranean principality — which country?

Answer Monaco

The Grand Prix is run on ordinary public roads that are reassembled into a circuit each year and dismantled afterward. The country is also the most densely populated in the world and the second smallest.

The Mekong runs through it · dawn alms processions · Southeast Asia's only landlocked country — which one?

Answer Laos

It is the most heavily bombed country per person in history — more ordnance was dropped on it during one conflict than on all of Europe in the Second World War. Clearance of what did not explode is still underway.

A claimed birthplace of wine · the Caucasus Mountains · the border of Europe and Asia — which country?

Answer Georgia

Clay vessels found there hold residues of wine from about eight thousand years ago, the earliest known. Its alphabet is also one of only a handful of writing systems in the world that is not derived from another.

Over eight hundred languages · birds of paradise · the eastern half of a great Pacific island — which country?

Answer Papua New Guinea

It has over eight hundred languages — roughly an eighth of all the languages on earth, spoken by a fraction of a percent of its people. The mountain terrain that kept communities separate is the usual explanation.

The ruins of Carthage · Mediterranean North Africa · desert sets from Star Wars — which country?

Answer Tunisia

The desert sets built there for a science fiction film were left standing and are still visited. One of the planet names in that film was taken directly from a town in the south of the country.