Georgia 🇬🇪

Quick facts

• Capital: Tbilisi
• Continent: Asia
• Population: 3,744,385
• Area: 69,700 km²
• Density: 53.7 people per km²
• Currency: GEL
• Languages: Georgian
• ISO code: GE

Where Georgia sits

Georgia 🇬🇪 is one of 48 countries in Asia, with its capital at Tbilisi. It covers 69,700 square kilometres — 119th in the world — and is home to about 3,744,385 people, 130th globally.

The countries it shares a continent with include China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Bangladesh. If you are learning geography region by region — which works far better than alphabetically, because memory for places is spatial — those are the ones to learn alongside it.

How Georgia compares

Raw figures are hard to hold on their own, so it helps to anchor them. In population, Georgia sits closest to Eritrea and Croatia. In land area, its nearest counterparts are Ireland and Sierra Leone.

At 53.7 people per square kilometre it is close to the world average of 59.4. It ranks higher by area than by population, so it is more spacious than its population alone suggests.

Georgian is listed as official in Georgia alone. The GEL is used by Georgia and no one else.

To see Georgia next to every other country, sort the country rankings by population, area or density; its currency and languages are listed alongside every other country's in world currencies and world languages.

How to remember Georgia

Tbilisi comes from the old Georgian word for 'warm', after the natural hot springs the city was built around. Five crosses on the flag, and Georgia is the country with the five-cross flag.

The flag of Georgia: white and red

🇬🇪 The flag is a white flag with a large red cross and a smaller red cross in each of the four corners, known as the Five Cross Flag. The large red cross is the cross of Saint George, the country's patron saint. The design is based on a 14th-century banner of the Kingdom of Georgia and was adopted in 2004.

Region and neighbours

Georgia is a country in the Caucasus, where Eastern Europe meets Western Asia, on the eastern coast of the Black Sea. It shares land borders with 4 countries: Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Turkey.

• Russia 🇷🇺 — capital Moscow
• Azerbaijan 🇦🇿 — capital Baku
• Armenia 🇦🇲 — capital Yerevan
• Turkey 🇹🇷 — capital Ankara

Three facts about Georgia

1. Georgian is written in its own alphabet, one of only a handful of scripts in the world used mainly by a single country.
2. Georgia is one of the oldest wine-making regions in the world, and its tradition of making wine in clay jars called qvevri is on UNESCO's list of intangible heritage.
3. The Greater Caucasus mountains run along its northern border with Russia.

Sources: Wikipedia: Georgia (country), Wikipedia: Flag of Georgia (country), Wikipedia: Tbilisi, CIA World Factbook.

Quiz yourself on Georgia

• Asian capitals quiz — match Georgia to Tbilisi
• Asian flags quiz — spot the Georgia flag among its neighbours

Quizzes that include Georgia

Three angles are worth covering for any country — where it is, what its flag looks like, and what its capital is. For Georgia those are:

• Asia map quiz — place it on a blank map
• Asia flags quiz — identify its flag among its neighbours
• Asia capitals quiz — match it to Tbilisi
• Georgia capital quiz — five quick questions starting with Georgia, plus the answer quizzes most often try to trick you with
• Daily Map Challenge — five countries to find on a blank world map, the same five for everyone each day

Doing all three for one continent before moving on is far more efficient than learning flags globally, then capitals globally, then the map.

Read more about Georgia

• Capital of Georgia: Tbilisi — the capital in detail, with size and density rankings
• All 48 countries of Asia

Nearby countries

• Afghanistan 🇦🇫 — capital Kabul
• Armenia 🇦🇲 — capital Yerevan
• Azerbaijan 🇦🇿 — capital Baku
• Bahrain 🇧🇭 — capital Manama
• Bangladesh 🇧🇩 — capital Dhaka
• Bhutan 🇧🇹 — capital Thimphu
• Brunei 🇧🇳 — capital Bandar Seri Begawan
• Cambodia 🇰🇭 — capital Phnom Penh
• China 🇨🇳 — capital Beijing
• India 🇮🇳 — capital New Delhi
• Indonesia 🇮🇩 — capital Jakarta
• Iran 🇮🇷 — capital Tehran

Frequently asked questions

What are the colours of the Georgia flag?

The flag of Georgia is a white flag with a large red cross and a smaller red cross in each of the four corners, known as the Five Cross Flag. The large red cross is the cross of Saint George, the country's patron saint. The design is based on a 14th-century banner of the Kingdom of Georgia and was adopted in 2004.

Which countries border Georgia?

Georgia shares land borders with Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Turkey.

How can I remember the capital of Georgia?

Tbilisi comes from the old Georgian word for 'warm', after the natural hot springs the city was built around. Five crosses on the flag, and Georgia is the country with the five-cross flag.