How this list was compiled: Items made on 2026-10-01; ids, points and accepted spellings are Natural Earth's, less the accepted names that are a capital's name or a plain English word (Choibalsan, Erdenet, Darkhan, Central, Eastern). The points of Arkhangai, Bayankhongor, Övörkhangai and Khentii are set by the spec, away from the middles of the four shapes, so that each name has room. THE MAP SOURCE MISPLACES ONE PROVINCE, AND THE PAGE DRAWS AROUND IT. Mongolia has 21 provinces (aimags) and the capital city, Ulaanbaatar, a unit of its own. Natural Earth's shape coded MN-064 (Govisümber) is not that province: it is the Baganuur district of Ulaanbaatar, an exclave of the capital on the line between Töv and Khentii. The shape's box is 108.20 to 108.49°E, 47.56 to 47.92°N and its area 645 square km (measured in the file); https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baganuur gives 47°47′N 108°22′E and 620.2 square km, 'a remote district and exclave ... on the border between Töv and Khentii'; OpenStreetMap's boundary of Baganuur, a district of Ulaanbaatar (MN-1), has the box 108.21 to 108.50°E, 47.67 to 47.99°N (https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/reverse?lat=47.74&lon=108.35&format=json&zoom=10); the World Meteorological Organization lists 'Baganuur district' at 47.81°N 108.34°E from Mongolia's national weather agency (https://worldweather.wmo.int/en/json/1132_en.json); all read 2026-10-01. The real Govisümber Province, around its capital Choir at 46°30′N 108°30′E with 5,541.80 square km (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Govisümber_Province, read 2026-10-01), lies inside the source's Dornogovi shape, which measures 114,328 square km against 109,472 for Dornogovi in the province table; Choir (46.36°N 108.37°E) falls inside that shape. So the spec draws the Baganuur shape as part of Ulaanbaatar ("ops", merge), and the source's Dornogovi shape is kept as one area that holds two provinces of today, Dornogovi and Govisümber: it is in this file for the drawing and is never numbered or asked. The page numbers and asks 19 provinces and the capital, 20 shapes; 17 of the 19 province shapes are within one and a half percent of their areas in the province table, the two small ones differ more (Darkhan-Uul 3,629 square km against 3,275, Orkhon 708 against 844), and Ulaanbaatar with Baganuur is 4,628 against 4,704. Count and every name read on 2026-10-01 in two places: ISO 3166-2:MN as printed at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-2:MN (21 provinces and 1 capital city, 22 codes; the drawing's ids are 21 of those codes) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provinces_of_Mongolia (the table of 21 provinces with the 2020 census of the National Statistics Office of Mongolia; its spellings are the labels used here). The same 22 names are in the Unicode CLDR list of subdivision names in English, https://raw.githubusercontent.com/unicode-org/cldr/main/common/subdivisions/en.xml, read 2026-10-01. Russia on the north, China on the south, and Ulaanbaatar the capital: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongolia, read 2026-10-01. Licence: public domain (Natural Earth terms of use: https://www.naturalearthdata.com/about/terms-of-use/)
The drawing: Drawn for this site from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_10m_admin_1_states_provinces (scale 1:10,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_10m_admin_1_states_provinces.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19. Surrounding land from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_10m_admin_0_countries (scale 1:10,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_10m_admin_0_countries.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19. Water cut out of the shapes from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_10m_lakes (scale 1:10,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_10m_lakes.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19. Lambert azimuthal equal-area projection centred on 47.9°N 102.1°E. Outlines simplified; small islands are left out. Licence: public domain (Natural Earth terms of use: https://www.naturalearthdata.com/about/terms-of-use/)
How it works
This blank map of Mongolia draws 19 of its 21 provinces and the capital, Ulaanbaatar, between Russia and China. The southeast is one area that holds two provinces. Switch Borders off and it prints as a plain outline.
Read the full guide
Blank, numbered or named
The sheet opens blank. Choose Numbered to put a number on 19 provinces and the capital, or Named for their names, then press Print this map. Print the answer key gives the names on a sheet of its own. Orkhon is too small to write on, so a short line leads out of it.
Why one area has no number
The southeast is one area with no number: it holds two provinces, Dornogovi and the smaller Govisümber, and the map source has no true line between them. Ulaanbaatar is drawn in two parts: the capital inside Töv, and its Baganuur district on Töv’s eastern edge. The two gaps in the north are lakes, Uvs and Khövsgöl.
To finish it by hand, students draw one line across the southeast area near its northern tip: Govisümber is the small part, Dornogovi the rest.
Questions and answers
How many provinces does Mongolia have?
Twenty-one, called aimags. The capital, Ulaanbaatar, is governed as a unit of its own outside any province. This map numbers 19 provinces and the capital, and draws Dornogovi and Govisümber as one area.
Why does the southeast have no number?
Two provinces share it: Dornogovi and Govisümber. The map source puts Govisümber in the wrong place, so the sheet has no true line between the two and leaves the area without a number.
Can I print Mongolia without the province lines?
Yes. Switch Borders off. The sheet then prints the outline of Mongolia and its two large lakes, with Russia and China as plain land around it. The short line that marks Orkhon stays.
Which is the largest province of Mongolia?
Ömnögovi, in the south, by area. Orkhon, in the north, is the smallest.
Which countries border Mongolia?
Two: Russia on the north and China on the south. Mongolia has no coast.