Geography is the largest single category in British pub quizzes after general
knowledge, and it is the most learnable, because the world is finite. There are
195 countries, a similar number of capitals, a few dozen rivers and mountain
ranges that anyone asks about, and a bounded set of superlatives — longest,
highest, driest, deepest. Beyond that the questions repeat.
The shape of a geography round
Typically: two or three capitals, a flag or an outline, a river or mountain,
a "which country has the most…" superlative, and one question that is really
about a border oddity. Currencies and national animals appear more often than
people expect, and demonyms — what you call someone from Monaco, or Naples —
are a reliable tie-breaker.
The superlatives are worth learning as a set rather than one at a time,
because they cluster: the
Atacama is the driest place, the
Danakil the hottest, the
Kola borehole the deepest hole, and
Point Nemo the furthest from land. A
setter building a round reaches for the same shelf.
What changes, and what setters get wrong
Geography is not static, and the questions lag behind it. The
Caspian is legally neither a lake
nor a sea; the
Himalayas are still growing;
Australia has moved far enough for GPS
to need recalibrating; and the
Aral Sea has largely ceased to exist. A
question written from a 1990s almanac will be answered from a 1990s almanac,
and knowing which way the setter is out of date is itself worth a point.
Capitals have a page of their own — see
capital cities quiz questions —
and UK county towns, which behave quite differently, are
here.
Thanks to its overseas territories, which country spans the most time zones (12)?
Answer France
Which country has the most UNESCO World Heritage Sites?
Answer Italy
Fortune cookies, associated with Chinese restaurants, most likely originated in which country?
Answer Japan
Don Quixote tilted at windmills in La Mancha, a region of which country?
Answer Spain
Sydney and Melbourne both lost out when which country made a purpose-built city its capital in 1913?
Answer Australia
Country with the longest coastline?
Answer Canada
Largest country by area?
Answer Russia
Which two countries border 14 others (most neighbours)?
Answer Russia and China
Which country has more Portuguese speakers than Portugal — by a factor of about twenty?
Answer Brazil
Most populous country?
Answer India (overtook China in 2023)
Which country was the first to give all women the vote, in 1893?
Answer New Zealand
Which country has three capital cities — Pretoria, Cape Town and Bloemfontein?
Answer South Africa
Día de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead, is most associated with which country?
Answer Mexico
With around 267,000, which Nordic country has the most islands in the world?
Answer Sweden
Which country eats the most chocolate per person — and also invented milk chocolate?
Answer Switzerland
Which country's name comes from the Latin for silver?
Answer Argentina
Driest place on Earth (non-polar)?
Answer Atacama Desert, Chile
The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo, capital of which country, unlike all the other Nobels?
Answer Norway
Which country is the world's largest archipelagic state, with over 17,000 islands?
Answer Indonesia
Istanbul is its largest city, but which country's capital is Ankara?
Answer Turkey
The potato was first domesticated in the Andes of which country?
Answer Peru
'The gift of the Nile' was Herodotus's name for which country?
Answer Egypt
What is the national animal of the United Kingdom?
Answer Lion
About a third of the world drives on the left, a custom usually traced to which country?
Answer United Kingdom
The Rubik's Cube and the ballpoint pen (biro) were both invented by citizens of which country?
Answer Hungary
Vienna, capital of which country, is one of four national capitals on the Danube?
Answer Austria
Which Southeast Asian country's name means 'land of the free' — fittingly, as it was never colonized?
Answer Thailand
8,000-year-old evidence makes which Caucasus country the birthplace of wine?
Answer Georgia
Coffee was first cultivated in which African country, according to legend by a goatherd named Kaldi?
Answer Ethiopia
Which river runs through Cairo?
Answer Nile