74 geography trivia questions with answers
74 geography trivia questions about countries, cities, islands and borders, each with four options, the answer and a short explanation. They are the geography rounds of Quible’s trivia game, fact-checked. Read them aloud or tap to reveal.
Questions 1 to 25
Which city was Australia's seat of government before Canberra?
Answer
Melbourne. Melbourne held parliament from 1901 until Canberra was ready in 1927.
What is the currency of Poland?
Answer
Zloty. Zloty literally means “golden”.
Which is the smallest country on Earth?
Answer
Vatican City. Vatican City measures only 0.44 square kilometers.
Which city is nicknamed “The Eternal City”?
Answer
Rome. The nickname comes from Roman poets of the 1st century BC.
Which is the largest island in the Mediterranean?
Answer
Sicily. Sicily measures about 25,700 km², and it carries Etna, the most active volcano in Europe.
Which island is the largest in the world?
Answer
Greenland. Greenland measures about 2.17 million km². Australia is considered a continent and stays out of the running.
Which country do the Canary Islands belong to?
Answer
Spain. The Canaries lie off the coast of Africa, but they belong to Spain as an autonomous region.
Which island do Haiti and the Dominican Republic share?
Answer
Hispaniola. Hispaniola is the second largest island in the Caribbean after Cuba.
Which is the largest island of Sweden?
Answer
Gotland. Gotland measures around 3,000 km². Its capital Visby is ringed by a medieval wall.
Which is the largest German island?
Answer
Rügen. Rügen measures 926 km². Its landmarks are the chalk cliffs at Königsstuhl.
Which island is nicknamed the “Emerald Isle”?
Answer
Ireland. Ireland's mild, rainy climate keeps the pastures green all year round.
Which country does the island of Madeira belong to?
Answer
Portugal. Madeira is an autonomous region of Portugal and lies almost 1,000 kilometers southwest of Lisbon.
Which Italian volcanic island is called the “Lighthouse of the Mediterranean”?
Answer
Stromboli. Stromboli has thrown up small lava fountains almost non-stop for thousands of years.
On which island was Napoleon Bonaparte born?
Answer
Corsica. Napoleon was born in Ajaccio in 1769, shortly after Corsica fell to France.
Which is the largest island in Europe?
Answer
Great Britain. Great Britain measures around 209,000 km². Iceland follows with a good 103,000.
Which country is made up of around 6,000 islands, of which only about 230 are inhabited?
Answer
Greece. Of Greece's roughly 6,000 islands and islets, only about 230 are permanently inhabited.
Which is the fourth largest island in the world?
Answer
Madagascar. About 90 percent of Madagascar's animal and plant species exist nowhere else.
Which country does Easter Island belong to?
Answer
Chile. Easter Island has belonged to Chile since 1888 and lies around 3,500 kilometers off its coast.
Which is the smallest country in the European Union by area?
Answer
Malta. Malta measures only 316 km². Luxembourg is eight times as big at 2,586 km².
Which European capital lies farthest north?
Answer
Reykjavík. Reykjavík sits at 64 degrees north, farther north than any other capital of a sovereign state.
Which European Union country has the most inhabitants?
Answer
Germany. Germany comes to around 83 million, France to about 68 million.
Which is the largest island of Japan?
Answer
Honshu. Tokyo, Osaka and Mount Fuji all sit on Honshu. About 80 percent of all Japanese live there.
Which is the largest of the Balearic Islands?
Answer
Mallorca. Mallorca is a good six times the size of Ibiza, and it has a mountain range with a 1,400-meter peak.
Which country is made up of over 17,000 islands?
Answer
Indonesia. Only about 6,000 of them are inhabited. Indonesia stretches across three time zones.
Which kingdom does Greenland belong to?
Answer
Denmark. Greenland has largely governed itself since 1979, and it left the European Community in 1985.
Questions 26 to 50
Which Mediterranean island lies south of Corsica?
Answer
Sardinia. Only eleven kilometers of strait separate Corsica and Sardinia.
Which is the second largest island in the world?
Answer
New Guinea. New Guinea is split between two countries, and over 800 languages are spoken on it.
On which island did the extinct dodo live?
Answer
Mauritius. Less than a hundred years after the first sailors arrived, the flightless bird was gone.
Which island is shared by Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei?
Answer
Borneo. Borneo is the only island in the world split between three countries.
Which country does the Svalbard archipelago belong to?
Answer
Norway. A 1920 treaty gave Norway the islands and every signatory the right to settle.
Which country do the Åland Islands belong to?
Answer
Finland. They belong to Finland, but almost everyone there speaks Swedish.
Which country do the Faroe Islands belong to?
Answer
Denmark. They belong to Denmark but stayed out of the EU by their own choice.
Which island group in the middle of the Atlantic belongs to Portugal?
Answer
The Azores. Nine islands, about 1,400 kilometers from the Portuguese mainland.
Which country do the Galápagos Islands belong to?
Answer
Ecuador. They sit about 1,000 kilometers off the coast of Ecuador.
Which island state in the Indian Ocean has Port Louis as its capital?
Answer
Mauritius. Mauritius is also the island where the dodo once lived.
Which is the largest of the Canary Islands?
Answer
Tenerife. Tenerife also carries Spain's highest mountain, the Teide.
Which island lies in the middle of the Irish Sea between Britain and Ireland?
Answer
The Isle of Man. The island runs its own parliament, the Tynwald, and is not part of the UK.
Which of the Channel Islands is the largest?
Answer
Jersey. Jersey lies closer to France than to England and rules itself.
Which is the largest of the Dutch West Frisian Islands?
Answer
Texel. Texel is the closest one to the mainland and the biggest of the chain.
Which is the second largest island of the British Isles?
Answer
Ireland. Only Great Britain is bigger, about two and a half times over.
Which is the second largest island of Greece?
Answer
Euboea. Euboea hugs the mainland so closely that a bridge crosses to it.
Which Baltic island belongs to Denmark but lies far to the east of it?
Answer
Bornholm. Bornholm sits closer to Sweden and Poland than to the rest of Denmark.
Which country does the island of Socotra belong to?
Answer
Yemen. A third of its plants grow nowhere else on Earth.
Which country does the island of Zanzibar belong to?
Answer
Tanzania. Zanzibar and Tanganyika merged in 1964 and coined the name Tanzania.
Which island state is made up of about 1,200 coral islands?
Answer
The Maldives. Almost no point in the country rises more than two meters above the sea.
Which island in the Indian Ocean is a French department?
Answer
Réunion. Réunion uses the euro, 9,000 kilometers away from Paris.
Which is the largest island of Denmark?
Answer
Zealand. Copenhagen sits on Zealand, on the side facing Sweden.
Which island group lies farthest north off Scotland?
Answer
Shetland. Shetland lies closer to Bergen in Norway than to Edinburgh.
Which Mediterranean island is split by a UN buffer zone?
Answer
Cyprus. The Green Line has cut through the island and its capital since 1974.
Which is the largest island of the Philippines?
Answer
Luzon. Manila sits on Luzon, and so does more than half the country's population.
Questions 51 to 74
Which is the largest island in the Caribbean?
Answer
Cuba. Cuba's main island alone stretches about 1,250 kilometers, roughly the distance from Hamburg to Rome.
Which German city has the most inhabitants after Berlin?
Answer
Hamburg. Hamburg has around 1.9 million people, Munich about 1.5 million.
Which French city has the most inhabitants after Paris?
Answer
Marseille. Marseille has been France's gateway to the Mediterranean for 2,600 years.
Which is the largest country that lies entirely in Europe?
Answer
Ukraine. Russia is bigger, but most of it lies in Asia.
Which EU country borders the most other countries in Europe?
Answer
Germany. Nine neighbors, from Denmark around to the Netherlands.
Which capital city lies on the river Vltava?
Answer
Prague. The Vltava joins the Elbe north of Prague and ends up in the North Sea.
Which European capital lies farthest west?
Answer
Reykjavík. Reykjavík sits at about 22 degrees west, Lisbon at about nine.
Which two states are completely surrounded by Italy?
Answer
San Marino and the Vatican. Monaco borders France, Andorra sits between France and Spain.
Which country is completely surrounded by South Africa?
Answer
Lesotho. Lesotho lies so high that its lowest point is above 1,400 meters.
Which country has three capital cities?
Answer
South Africa. Government in Pretoria, parliament in Cape Town, courts in Bloemfontein.
Which country stretches across the most time zones?
Answer
France. Counting its overseas territories, France covers twelve of them.
Which country holds the southernmost point of mainland Europe?
Answer
Spain. Punta de Tarifa looks across to Africa, 14 kilometers away.
Which country borders both the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf?
Answer
Iran. Iran touches both, about 1,000 kilometers apart.
Which is the largest country in Africa by area?
Answer
Algeria. Algeria took the title in 2011 when Sudan split in two.
Which African country has the most inhabitants?
Answer
Nigeria. More than 230 million people, about one in seven Africans.
Which city inside the European Union has the most inhabitants?
Answer
Berlin. Paris is huge as a metro area, but the city itself only holds about 2 million.
Which is the highest seat of government in the world?
Answer
La Paz. La Paz sits around 3,600 meters up. Landing there takes practice.
Which two countries share the longest land border in the world?
Answer
USA and Canada. About 8,900 kilometers, counting the stretch along Alaska.
Which is the largest landlocked country in the world?
Answer
Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan touches the Caspian, but that is a lake with no way out.
Which two countries are surrounded only by landlocked countries?
Answer
Liechtenstein and Uzbekistan. You have to cross two borders from either one to reach any sea.
Which Spanish cities are enclaves on the North African coast?
Answer
Ceuta and Melilla. Both sit on Moroccan soil and both use the euro.
Which is the smallest country in Africa by area?
Answer
The Seychelles. 455 square kilometers of islands, scattered across the Indian Ocean.
Which is the smallest country in South America by area?
Answer
Suriname. Suriname is the only country in the Americas where Dutch is official.
How many time zones does Russia have?
Answer
11. Eleven, from Kaliningrad to the Bering Strait.
From the Quible app. Every round has been fact-checked; spotted a mistake? support@playquible.com