Map Quiz
Test your geography on an interactive world map: click the country you are asked for, or name the highlighted country from four choices. Pick a continent, zoom in on the small ones and beat your best score; everything runs in your browser.
Scroll or pinch to zoom, drag to pan. Tiny countries have a dotted circle you can click.
Quiz complete!
Mistakes
How to use the Map Quiz
- Choose a mode: Find the country to click countries by name, or Name the country to identify the highlighted one.
- Pick a region and the number of questions. The map zooms to the region automatically.
- Answer each question by clicking the country on the map (or its dotted circle if it is tiny), or by choosing one of the four names.
- Zoom and pan with the + and − buttons, the mouse wheel or a pinch, and drag to move around.
- Review your results: correct countries turn green, mistakes are listed, and Practice my mistakes replays just the ones you missed.
Countries by region in this quiz
The quiz uses the Natural Earth 1:110m world map. Here is how many countries and territories you will be asked in each region:
| Region | Countries asked | Hardest to find |
|---|---|---|
| Africa | 50 | Gambia, Rwanda, Burundi, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini |
| Asia | 45 | Brunei, Qatar, Kuwait, Lebanon, Palestine, Timor-Leste |
| Europe | 40 | Luxembourg, Kosovo, Montenegro, Slovenia, North Macedonia, Cyprus |
| North & Central America | 18 | El Salvador, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Belize |
| South America | 13 | Suriname, Guyana, Falkland Islands, Uruguay |
| Oceania | 7 | Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, Fiji |
Microstates such as Vatican City, Monaco, San Marino, Liechtenstein, Malta, Singapore, Bahrain and most Caribbean and Pacific island nations are too small to appear on a 1:110m map, so they are not part of this quiz. Practise them with the Flag Quiz instead.
Tips to master the world map
- Anchor on big shapes. Learn the large countries of a region first (for Africa: Algeria, DR Congo, Sudan, Libya, Chad), then place the smaller ones around them.
- Use borders and coasts. Landlocked countries such as Mali, Niger, Bolivia, Paraguay and Mongolia are easy to remember once you notice they have no sea coast.
- Learn clusters. The Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, north to south), the Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg), the Balkans and Central America are best learnt as groups in order.
- Mix both modes. Recognising a highlighted shape and finding a country by name use different kinds of memory, so alternate between them.
- Repeat your mistakes. Spaced repetition works: replay the countries you miss until you can find them first time.
About the map
The map is drawn in the browser from the open Natural Earth dataset (public domain) using the Natural Earth projection, designed by Tom Patterson as a pleasing compromise between equal-area and conformal maps. Country borders shown here reflect the de facto boundaries in that dataset and are not an endorsement of any territorial claim. Want a random destination instead? Try the Random Country Generator.
Frequently asked questions
How many countries are on the map?
The map uses the Natural Earth 1:110m dataset, which shows about 175 countries and territories. Very small states such as Singapore, Malta, Andorra, Monaco and many island nations are too small for this scale and are not included. Antarctica, the French Southern Lands, Northern Cyprus and Somaliland are drawn but not asked.
How do I click very small countries?
Countries that are only a few pixels wide get a dotted circle around them that you can click instead. You can also zoom in with the + button, the mouse wheel or a pinch gesture until the country is big enough to click directly.
Which continent is each country in?
Europe includes Russia and Cyprus; Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan are in Asia. North & Central America covers Canada down to Panama plus the Caribbean and Greenland, and Oceania covers Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and the Pacific islands on the map.
How is my score saved?
Your best score for each combination of mode, region and round length is stored in your browser's local storage. Nothing is sent to a server and no account is needed.
What is the best way to learn the countries of the world?
Learn one region at a time, starting with large countries, then fill in neighbours. Play short 10-question rounds daily, use Practice my mistakes to repeat the ones you miss, and switch between both modes so you can both find and recognise each country.
Why does the map look curved?
It uses the Natural Earth projection, a compromise projection that keeps the shapes and sizes of countries more realistic than the familiar Mercator map, where countries near the poles such as Greenland and Russia look much too large.