BulgariaCapital: Sofia. South of the Danube and west of the Black Sea. The UN files it under Eastern Europe, though it lies in the Balkans. European Union member since 2007.
Czech RepublicCapital: Prague. Also called Czechia, and known in history as Bohemia. It has no coast. European Union member since 2004.
HungaryCapital: Budapest. Great lowland plains in the Carpathian Basin. Seven neighbors and no coast. European Union member since 2004.
PolandCapital: Warsaw. From the Baltic south to the Sudetes and Carpathian mountains. Sixteen voivodeships. European Union member since 2004.
RomaniaCapital: Bucharest. On the lower Danube, north of the Balkan Peninsula. The twelfth-largest country in Europe. The UN files it under Eastern Europe. European Union member since 2007.
SlovakiaCapital: Bratislava. Košice is the second-largest city. Mostly mountainous, with no coast. European Union member since 2004.
Northern Europe 7
DenmarkCapital: Copenhagen. The Jutland peninsula plus 406 islands. The southernmost of the Scandinavian countries. European Union member since 1973.
EstoniaCapital: Tallinn. The large islands of Saaremaa and Hiiumaa belong to it. So do more than 2,300 smaller ones. European Union member since 2004.
FinlandCapital: Helsinki. A Nordic country with two official languages, Finnish and Swedish. European Union member since 1995.
IrelandCapital: Dublin, on the east side of the island. The state has 26 of the island's 32 counties. European Union member since 1973.
LatviaCapital: Riga, the largest city. About 64,600 square kilometers, a little smaller than Lithuania. European Union member since 2004.
LithuaniaCapital: Vilnius. About 65,300 square kilometers, a little larger than Latvia. European Union member since 2004.
SwedenCapital: Stockholm. The largest and most populous Nordic country. The fifth-largest country in Europe. European Union member since 1995.
Southern Europe 7
CroatiaCapital: Zagreb. More than 1,000 islands and islets line its Adriatic coast. European Union member since 2013.
GreeceCapital: Athens. Thousands of islands give it the longest Mediterranean coastline. European Union member since 1981.
ItalyCapital: Rome. Two countries lie entirely inside it. They are San Marino and Vatican City. European Union member since 1958.
MaltaCapital: Valletta, the smallest capital city in the European Union. The islands lie about 80 kilometers south of Italy. European Union member since 2004.
PortugalCapital: Lisbon. Madeira and the Azores, Atlantic island groups, belong to it. European Union member since 1986.
SloveniaCapital: Ljubljana. Its Adriatic coast is 46.6 kilometers long. Mostly mountains and forest. European Union member since 2004.
SpainCapital: Madrid. The largest country in Southern Europe. The Canary and Balearic islands belong to it. European Union member since 1986.
Western Europe 6
AustriaCapital: Vienna. A federation of nine states in the Eastern Alps. Eight neighbors and no coast. European Union member since 1995.
BelgiumCapital: Brussels. One of the Low Countries, about 30,700 square kilometers. European Union member since 1958.
FranceCapital: Paris. Its overseas regions include French Guiana, in South America. European Union member since 1958.
GermanyCapital: Berlin. More people than any other European Union member. 16 states. European Union member since 1958.
LuxembourgCapital: Luxembourg. It is one of the seats of the European Union. Also home of its Court of Justice. European Union member since 1958.
NetherlandsCapital: Amsterdam. The government sits in The Hague. Twelve provinces, and informally called Holland. European Union member since 1958.
Other 1
CyprusCapital: Nicosia. The third-largest island in the Mediterranean. The UN files it under Western Asia. European Union member since 2004.
How this list was compiled: The countries are the member states of the United Nations that the UN files under its four regions of Europe, plus Cyprus, a European Union member that the UN files under Western Asia: https://www.un.org/en/about-us/member-states and United Nations Statistics Division, Standard country or area codes for statistical use (M49), https://unstats.un.org/unsd/methodology/m49/, both checked 2026-09-19. The 27 members of the European Union and the year each joined: https://european-union.europa.eu/principles-countries-history/eu-countries_en, checked 2026-09-19. Capitals: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_and_dependent_territories_in_Europe, checked 2026-09-19. The Balkans group: there is no agreed list (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balkans, checked 2026-09-19); this one is the former Yugoslav states, Albania, Greece, Bulgaria and Romania. Shapes of the drawing that are dependencies, that the points file flags, or that are not member states are not on this list and are never asked. Positions in the hints were read off the drawing; the "largest shape" hint was checked against the areas of the drawn shapes. The second and later sentences of each detail line were read on 2026-09-19 in the lead of that country's article at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ followed by the country's name as the quiz labels it (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_(country) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Ireland for those two); no detail line names a flagged shape or describes a border that is contested. Hints and detail lines written for this site. Licence: own work
The drawing: Drawn for this site from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_50m_admin_0_countries_lakes (scale 1:50,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_50m_admin_0_countries_lakes.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19. Lambert azimuthal equal-area projection centred on 53°N 15°E. Outlines simplified; small islands are left out. 6 places are too small to draw at this scale and shown as a dot. Licence: public domain (Natural Earth terms of use: https://www.naturalearthdata.com/about/terms-of-use/)
How it works
This European Union map quiz asks the 27 member states, as listed on the union's own website on September 19, 2026. Find it names a member to tap. Name it lights one to type. Non-members are drawn, never asked.
Read the full guide
The 27 members by year of joining
Six countries founded the union's forerunner in 1958: Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Denmark and Ireland came in 1973, Greece in 1981, Portugal and Spain in 1986, and Austria, Finland and Sweden in 1995. Ten joined in 2004, Bulgaria and Romania in 2007, and Croatia in 2013. Each detail line shows the year.
Five buttons, three rings, one island apart
Five sets under Start from shorten the round: Eastern Europe (6), Northern Europe (7), Southern Europe (7), Western Europe (6) and Balkans (5). Cyprus is in none, because the United Nations files it under Western Asia, so it comes up only in the full round. Cyprus, Luxembourg and Malta are too small to tap, so aim for the ring beside each.
Find the hole in the middle first: Switzerland and Liechtenstein, ringed by the members France, Germany, Austria and Italy.
Most of the western Balkans is a second gap, edged by the members Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Greece.
The ten of 2004: a belt from Estonia to Slovenia, plus the islands Malta and Cyprus. Typing Czechia is accepted.
Questions and answers
How many countries are in the European Union in 2026?
Twenty-seven, on the official list as read on September 19, 2026. Croatia's entry in 2013 made 28, and the United Kingdom's exit on January 31, 2020 brought the count back to 27. Malta is the smallest member by area and France is the largest.
Why does the quiz never ask the United Kingdom, Norway or Switzerland?
None of them is a member. The United Kingdom joined in 1973 and is the only member state that has ever withdrawn. Norway, Switzerland and Iceland have never been members. All four are on the European countries quiz, among its 48 countries.
Do all 27 members use the euro?
No. Twenty-one do, and Bulgaria became the 21st on January 1, 2026. The six members that keep their own currency are the Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Sweden. Currency never comes up in a round.