How many countries are there to learn?
There is no single official number. The United Nations has 193 member states and two observer states (Vatican City and Palestine). Some lists add Kosovo and Taiwan, which are recognized by many but not all countries. Geography Quiz Arcade uses 197: the 193 UN members, both observers, Kosovo and Taiwan. If your class or quiz uses a different count, the difference will be in those four.
The challenge above asks you to type as many countries as you can before the timer runs out. It is hard the first time — few people get anywhere near 197 on a first attempt — and that is the point: it shows you exactly which parts of the world you do not know yet.
The world, described region by region
This section describes the world map in words, so you can build a mental picture without seeing it. On our list the countries divide by continent like this:
| Continent | Countries on our list |
|---|---|
| Africa | 54 |
| Asia | 48 |
| Europe | 46 |
| North America (including Central America and the Caribbean) | 23 |
| Oceania | 14 |
| South America | 12 |
Continent counts differ between sources because a few countries straddle boundaries — Russia, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Cyprus are the usual ones.
Africa
Asia
Europe
North America, Central America and the Caribbean
South America
Oceania
Country names that are easy to confuse
When you type countries from memory, near-duplicates are the ones you forget to include. Learn them together:
- Niger and Nigeria — neighbors in West Africa; Niger is the large desert country to the north, Nigeria the most populous country in Africa to the south.
- Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea and Papua New Guinea — three in Africa and one in Oceania. It is easy to type one Guinea and move on.
- Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo — two separate countries on either side of the Congo River.
- Sudan and South Sudan — South Sudan became independent in 2011.
- Dominica and the Dominican Republic — a small island nation in the eastern Caribbean, and the country that shares Hispaniola with Haiti.
- Austria and Australia, Slovakia and Slovenia, Iran and Iraq — different continents or different sides of a border, but similar enough to slip past when you are typing fast.
A study plan that gets you to 197
- Take a baseline. Play the challenge above once, cold. Note your score and which continents your misses came from.
- One continent at a time. Start with South America (12) for a quick win, then Europe, then Asia and Africa. Use the continent speed lists: Europe, Africa, Asia.
- Add the map. Once you can list a continent, place it with the Click the Country map quiz. Recall and location reinforce each other.
- Chunk the hard regions. Learn the Balkans, the Caribbean, West Africa and the Pacific islands as named groups, reciting them in geographic order along a coast or chain.
- Retest weekly. Replay the full challenge once a week and compare with your baseline.
Tips from people who have done it
- Recite along a route. Tracing the West African coast or the Caribbean chain in order is easier than recalling scattered names.
- Use the letters. Many learners do a final sweep through the alphabet — "any countries starting with K?" — to catch stragglers such as Kiribati, Kosovo and Kyrgyzstan.
- Do not skip the microstates. Andorra, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Nauru, Tuvalu and Palau are the usual last few.
- Learn shapes last. The country silhouette quiz is a good test once names and locations are solid.
For flags and capitals of the same countries, continue with the world capitals study guide and the flags of the world study guide.