Saint Kitts and Nevis(capital: Basseterre)261 km², number 7 of 50 counting from the smallest. The smallest sovereign state in the Western Hemisphere, in both area and population.
Grenada(capital: St. George's)345 km², number 10 of 50 counting from the smallest. Known as the Island of Spice for its nutmeg and mace. The smaller islands of Carriacou and Petite Martinique belong to it.
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines(capital: Kingstown)389 km², number 11 of 50 counting from the smallest. Most of the land is the island of Saint Vincent. The country also holds the northern two thirds of the Grenadines chain; the rest belongs to Grenada.
Barbados(capital: Bridgetown)431 km², number 12 of 50 counting from the smallest. The easternmost island of the Caribbean region. It first appeared on a Spanish map in 1511.
Antigua and Barbuda(capital: St. John's)442 km², number 13 of 50 counting from the smallest. Most people live on Antigua. The only settlement on Barbuda is Codrington.
Saint Lucia(capital: Castries)616 km², number 17 of 50 counting from the smallest. England and France fought 14 times for control of the island.
Dominica(capital: Roseau)750 km², number 21 of 50 counting from the smallest. Not the Dominican Republic, a far larger country on the island of Hispaniola. Its nearest neighbors are two French islands, Guadeloupe and Martinique.
Trinidad and Tobago(capital: Port of Spain)5,127 km², number 30 of 50 counting from the smallest. The main island is only 11 km from Venezuela. The largest municipality is Chaguanas, not the capital.
Jamaica(capital: Kingston)10,991 km², number 34 of 50 counting from the smallest. The third-largest island in the Caribbean, after Cuba and Hispaniola.
The Bahamas(capital: Nassau)13,880 km², number 38 of 50 counting from the smallest. About 700 islands and more than 2,500 cays. Columbus made his first landfall in the Americas here in 1492.
El Salvador(capital: San Salvador)21,041 km², number 45 of 50 counting from the smallest. The smallest United Nations member on the mainland of the Americas. About 6 million people live here.
Belize(capital: Belmopan)22,965 km², number 47 of 50 counting from the smallest. Borders Mexico and Guatemala and faces the Caribbean Sea. It became a British colony in 1840 and has been independent since 21 September 1981.
Europe 9
Monaco(capital: Monaco)2 km², number 1 of 50 counting from the smallest. The smallest United Nations member. Vatican City is smaller still, but it is an observer state, not a member.
San Marino(capital: San Marino)61 km², number 4 of 50 counting from the smallest. The larger of the two microstates inside the Italian Peninsula. The other is Vatican City.
Liechtenstein(capital: Vaduz)160 km², number 5 of 50 counting from the smallest. Doubly landlocked: its only neighbors, Switzerland and Austria, have no coast either.
Malta(capital: Valletta)315 km², number 9 of 50 counting from the smallest. An archipelago 80 km south of Italy. Maltese and English are the two official languages.
Andorra(capital: Andorra la Vella)468 km², number 16 of 50 counting from the smallest. The largest of the European microstates. Its two co-princes are the Bishop of Urgell and the president of France.
Luxembourg(capital: Luxembourg City)2,586 km², number 27 of 50 counting from the smallest. A grand duchy bordered by Belgium, Germany and France. Its capital is one of the four institutional seats of the European Union.
Montenegro(capital: Podgorica)13,888 km², number 39 of 50 counting from the smallest. Borders Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo and Albania. The town of Cetinje keeps the title of Old Royal Capital.
Slovenia(capital: Ljubljana)20,273 km², number 44 of 50 counting from the smallest. Borders Italy, Austria, Hungary and Croatia, and has a 46.6 km coast on the Adriatic Sea. It is easy to mix up with Slovakia, which has no coast.
North Macedonia(capital: Skopje)25,713 km², number 49 of 50 counting from the smallest. Landlocked, with five neighbors: Greece, Albania, Bulgaria, Kosovo and Serbia. It covers about the northern third of the wider region of Macedonia.
Africa and its islands 9
Seychelles(capital: Victoria)457 km², number 14 of 50 counting from the smallest. The smallest country in Africa, and the African state with the fewest people. It has 115 islands.
São Tomé and Príncipe(capital: São Tomé)964 km², number 24 of 50 counting from the smallest. The second-smallest African state, after Seychelles. Nobody lived on the islands until Portuguese explorers arrived in 1470.
Comoros(capital: Moroni)1,861 km², number 25 of 50 counting from the smallest. The only Arab League country that lies entirely in the Southern Hemisphere. It became independent from France on 6 July 1975.
Mauritius(capital: Port Louis)2,096 km², number 26 of 50 counting from the smallest. Part of the Mascarene Islands, together with its own island of Rodrigues and nearby Réunion, which is French.
Cape Verde(capital: Praia)4,033 km², number 29 of 50 counting from the smallest. Known officially as Cabo Verde, its Portuguese name. Nobody lived on the islands until Portuguese settlers came in the 15th century.
The Gambia(capital: Banjul)11,295 km², number 35 of 50 counting from the smallest. The smallest country in continental Africa. It follows both banks of the lower Gambia River and is surrounded by Senegal except at the coast.
Eswatini(capital: Mbabane)17,363 km², number 41 of 50 counting from the smallest. Formerly called Swaziland. It is the second-smallest country in continental Africa, and it has two capitals.
Djibouti(capital: Djibouti City)23,200 km², number 48 of 50 counting from the smallest. Borders Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia. Before independence it was French Somaliland, then the French Territory of the Afars and the Issas.
Rwanda(capital: Kigali)26,338 km², number 50 of 50 counting from the smallest. The largest of the 50. Haiti, the next country up the list, is about 1,400 km² bigger. Its neighbors are Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Middle East 6
Bahrain(capital: Manama)778 km², number 22 of 50 counting from the smallest. The third-smallest country in Asia, after the Maldives and Singapore. The King Fahd Causeway links it to Saudi Arabia.
Cyprus(capital: Nicosia)9,251 km², number 32 of 50 counting from the smallest. The United Nations geoscheme places it in Western Asia, and it is also a member of the European Union. A United Nations buffer zone divides the island.
Lebanon(capital: Beirut)10,452 km², number 33 of 50 counting from the smallest. Bordered by Syria and Israel, with Cyprus a short distance off the coast. It was part of Phoenicia from 3200 to 539 BC.
Qatar(capital: Doha)11,586 km², number 36 of 50 counting from the smallest. Its only land border is with Saudi Arabia. The Gulf of Bahrain separates it from the island state of Bahrain.
Kuwait(capital: Kuwait City)17,818 km², number 42 of 50 counting from the smallest. Borders Iraq and Saudi Arabia at the head of the Persian Gulf. Most of its people live in the urban area of the capital.
Israel(capital: Jerusalem)21,937 km², number 46 of 50 counting from the smallest. Borders Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt. This map follows the Natural Earth data, which draws the Golan Heights with it; the United Nations does not recognize that annexation.
South and Southeast Asia 4
Maldives(capital: Malé)300 km², number 8 of 50 counting from the smallest. The smallest country in Asia. Its 26 atolls are spread over roughly 90,000 km² of sea.
Singapore(capital: Singapore)745 km², number 19 of 50 counting from the smallest. A main island and more than 60 smaller ones. The Straits of Johor separate it from Malaysia to the north.
Brunei(capital: Bandar Seri Begawan)5,765 km², number 31 of 50 counting from the smallest. The only sovereign state entirely on Borneo. The Sarawak district of Limbang splits it into two parts.
Timor-Leste(capital: Dili)14,874 km², number 40 of 50 counting from the smallest. Also called East Timor. On 20 May 2002 it became the first new sovereign state of the 21st century. The exclave of Oecusse belongs to it.
Pacific 9
Nauru(capital: Yaren)21 km², number 2 of 50 counting from the smallest. The smallest island country in the United Nations, with about 12,000 people.
Tuvalu(capital: Funafuti)26 km², number 3 of 50 counting from the smallest. Its nine islands lie between 5 and 10 degrees south, just west of the International Date Line.
Marshall Islands(capital: Majuro)181 km², number 6 of 50 counting from the smallest. 29 coral atolls and five main islands in two chains. Almost all of its territory is lagoon water.
Palau(capital: Ngerulmud)459 km², number 15 of 50 counting from the smallest. About 340 islands forming the western part of the Caroline Islands. Koror is the island with the most people.
Micronesia(capital: Palikir)702 km², number 18 of 50 counting from the smallest. In full, the Federated States of Micronesia: four states spread across almost 2,700 km of the Caroline Islands. The wider island region has the same name.
Tonga(capital: Nukuʻalofa)747 km², number 20 of 50 counting from the smallest. A kingdom of 171 islands, 45 of them inhabited. About 70 percent of the people live on the main island, Tongatapu.
Samoa(capital: Apia)2,842 km², number 28 of 50 counting from the smallest. Two main islands, Savai'i and Upolu. American Samoa, 64 km to the east, is a separate United States territory.
Vanuatu(capital: Port Vila)12,189 km², number 37 of 50 counting from the smallest. A volcanic archipelago 1,750 km east of northern Australia. From 1906 France and the United Kingdom managed it jointly.
Fiji(capital: Suva)18,272 km², number 43 of 50 counting from the smallest. More than 330 islands, about 110 of them inhabited. About 87 percent of the people live on Viti Levu and Vanua Levu.
Other 1
Kiribati(capital: South Tarawa)811 km², number 23 of 50 counting from the smallest. Its islands straddle both the equator and the 180th meridian, from Banaba in the west to Kiritimati in the east. More than half of the people live on Tarawa.
How this list was compiled: Hints, detail lines and accepted spellings written for this site. The list of 50 was worked out on 2026-09-19 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_area (revision of 2026-09-07), whose total areas (land plus inland water) come from the United Nations Statistics Division, Demographic Yearbook 2022, table 3, https://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic-social/products/dyb/dyb_2022/. Membership of the United Nations was checked the same day against https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Member_states_of_the_United_Nations (193 members; the Holy See and Palestine are observers). Every capital was checked on 2026-09-19 against https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_national_capitals, and the facts in the hints and detail lines against the opening section of the English Wikipedia article on each country and each capital, read the same day. The population comparison in the editors' notes was checked the same day against https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_population. The map and the points are this site's own world map, drawn from Natural Earth 5.1.2 (public domain). 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. Equal Earth projection centred on 11°E. Outlines simplified; small islands are left out. 66 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 hard geography quiz swaps opinion for one rule: the 50 United Nations member states with the smallest total area, from Monaco at 2 km² to Rwanda at 26,338 km². Pick a region to zoom in. Tap or click each country it names on the world map, or name the highlighted one and then give its capital. At the end, the main button retries your misses.
Read the full guide
How the 50 countries were chosen
Take the 193 members of the United Nations, sort them by total area (land plus inland water) using the UN Demographic Yearbook 2022, and keep the 50 smallest. Haiti, the first country left out, is about 1,400 km² larger than Rwanda.
Find it, Name it and the capital step
Find it names a country and you tap it. A wrong tap reveals the answer and counts as a miss. Name it highlights a country and asks which one it is, then asks for its capital, and the question counts only when both answers are right. Name it opens on 4 choices. Switch to Type it for the hardest geography quiz this page can give. Study steps through every name and detail line with no scoring.
Capitals with a catch
Several capitals here have no simple answer. Eswatini has two capitals: Mbabane is asked for, and a typed Lobamba also counts. Nauru has no official capital, so the quiz asks for Yaren, the district with the government offices. Monaco and Singapore are city-states. For Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands the capital is a whole atoll, Funafuti and Majuro. Jerusalem is given for Israel with a note that its status is disputed.
On a phone, pick a region before you start. The map zooms in and the dots become large enough to tap.
Learn the eastern Caribbean as a chain. From Dominica the islands run south through Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and Grenada, with Barbados alone out to the east.
Pair each European microstate with its neighbors: Monaco with France, San Marino inside Italy, Andorra between France and Spain, Liechtenstein between Switzerland and Austria.
In the Pacific, use Fiji as the anchor. Vanuatu is to its west, Tuvalu to its north, and Tonga and Samoa to its east.
Missed five? Press Practise the 5 you missed after the round. What makes a geography quiz hard is usually the same few countries, and that round asks only those.
Questions and answers
Why is Vatican City not in the quiz?
The rule counts members of the United Nations, and Vatican City is an observer state, not a member. At 0.44 km² it would otherwise be first on the list, ahead of Monaco. Palestine is an observer too. Kosovo, Taiwan, the Cook Islands, Niue and every dependent territory are left out for the same reason.
Would the list change if it used population and not area?
Yes. The smallest countries by population include large, thinly peopled ones such as Iceland, Suriname, Guyana and Bhutan. Crowded small countries such as Rwanda, El Salvador, Israel and Lebanon would drop out. Area was chosen because a small area is what makes a country hard to find on a map.
Why is Kiribati at the left edge of the map and in no region?
Kiribati straddles the 180th meridian, and this world map is cut in the Pacific so that Russia stays in one piece. Its single dot lands at the far left edge, far from its Pacific neighbors on the right. A zoom to the western Pacific would hide it, so it is asked only when you play all 50.
Why are some countries drawn as dots?
The drawing comes from the public-domain Natural Earth data at a scale of 1:50,000,000. At that scale 29 of these 50 countries are too small to draw as an outline, so each gets a dot. In the eastern Caribbean a few dots are nudged away from their true place so they do not overlap.
Which spellings does the text box accept?
Capital letters, accents and punctuation never matter, so Sao Tome, Male and Nukualofa are all fine, and St is read the same as Saint. Older and alternative names count too: Swaziland for Eswatini, East Timor for Timor-Leste, Cabo Verde for Cape Verde. In longer names one typing slip is forgiven.
Can I use this quiz with a class?
Yes. No account is needed, and scores stay on the device they were played on. Share score copies a link with a score and no name. Print blank gives a numbered world map with an empty line for each country, and Print labelled gives the same sheet with the names filled in.