Name All 197 Countries

How many of the 197 UN-recognized countries can you name in 15 minutes?

Type as many of the world's 197 countries as you can before the clock runs out. Free, no signup, and every miss is listed at the end.

How the countries speed quiz works

Fifteen minutes, one text box, 197 countries. Type in any order; correct answers lock in and the list of misses is waiting for you at the end. Most first attempts land between 70 and 110.

Why people stall

Almost everyone stalls in the same three places: the small West African states, the Pacific island nations, and the Caribbean. Together they are around 40 countries — more than a fifth of the total — and they rarely appear in the news, so they never get rehearsed.

West Africa: Benin, Togo, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Gambia, Cape Verde, Burkina Faso.
Pacific: Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, Palau, Nauru, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea.
Caribbean: Jamaica, Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Bahamas, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica.

Write those three lists out once by hand, then run the quiz again. The jump is usually 30 to 40 countries.

Method that works

Go continent by continent instead of free-associating. Africa first (54 answers), then Europe, then Asia, then the Americas, then Oceania. Free association burns the clock; a fixed route does not.

Related challenges

Click the Country — placement instead of spelling
Continent speed quizzes — one continent at a time
Countries by continent tool
Name All 50 US States

Keep reading

Frequently asked questions

How many countries can the average person name?

Most people manage somewhere between 70 and 110 in a timed run before running out of recall.

How many countries are there?

The quiz uses 197 — the 193 United Nations member states plus Vatican City, Palestine, Kosovo and Taiwan.

Which countries do people forget most?

The small West African states, the Pacific island nations and the smaller Caribbean islands.

Is there a time limit?

Yes, fifteen minutes — but you can restart as many times as you like, free and without an account.