Geography Quiz Arcade

Which Countries Have the Most Borders?

Russia and China tie at 14 — but the list of border-rich nations has some surprises.

Some countries are completely landlocked. Others border more than a dozen neighbors. Here's the list.

Tied for #1 — Russia & China, 14 borders each. - Russia: Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China, North Korea. - China: Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, North Korea.

#3. Brazil — 10 borders. Every South American country except Chile and Ecuador.

#4. Tied: Germany, France, Tanzania, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, DRC — 8 each.

Why does this matter? Border-rich countries tend to be major trading hubs — and historically, more prone to conflict.

Bonus trivia: - The shortest international border is between Botswana and Zambia: just 150 meters across the Zambezi River. - The longest is the US-Canada border at 8,891 km. - Lesotho and San Marino are entirely surrounded by a single other country.

Related reading

Choosing the right game

Match the game to what you want to learn. Map quizzes build the mental map — where each country sits and what surrounds it. Flag and capital quizzes attach facts to places you already know. Daily puzzles are best for keeping what you have learned. All 106 games here are free, run in the browser and need no account, so you can switch between them freely.

The world by continent

If you want to learn every country, it helps to know how the 197 split across the continents before you start.

ContinentCountriesLargest by area
Africa54Algeria
Asia48China
Europe46Russia
North America23Canada
Oceania14Australia
South America12Brazil

How to make it stick

Learn one region at a time rather than the whole world alphabetically. Memory for places is spatial, so countries learned next to their neighbours are recalled far more reliably than countries learned from a list.

Short, repeated sessions beat one long one. Ten minutes today, a quick review tomorrow and another a few days later will hold far more than an hour of cramming. When you miss an answer, say the correct one out loud before moving on — the correction is where most of the learning happens.

Mix the three angles for each country: where it is on the map, what its flag looks like, and what its capital is. Each one gives you a hook for the other two.

Play offline in the free app

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