Countries of Asia quiz

The 47 countries in the quiz

They’re the 47 UN member countries of Asia, on a map of the continent. Territories and areas that aren’t asked, such as Taiwan, Baikonur, and Palestine, are shown in gray.

5 are so small that they have a circle you can tap; at sea, tapping close to it is enough.

How to play

In Point mode we name a country and you tap it on the map; in Type mode one lights up and you type its name (accents don’t matter); and in Time trial you get 6 seconds per question. If you miss, we show you where it was, which way it lies and a hint drawn from the data: the countries it borders and its capital.

Each game has 10, 20 or all the questions, and at the end you can practice just the ones you missed. Your best score for each mode is saved in this browser only: neither we nor anyone else can see it, and there’s no sign-up.

The hardest ones

The smallest countries are the hardest, since they barely show on the map: the Maldives (about 42 sq mi), Singapore (about 200 sq mi), and Bahrain (about 270 sq mi). Zoom in with the buttons or two fingers to tap them.

And watch out for look-alike names: North Korea and South Korea.

Tips to learn them

• Group the “-stan” countries: the five in Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan) and, to the south, Afghanistan and Pakistan. They all sit between the Caspian Sea and China.
• Start with the three largest: China, India, and Kazakhstan cover 49% of the area of Asia.
• There are 9 landlocked countries: Afghanistan, Armenia, Bhutan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mongolia, Nepal, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Look for them inland.
• Bahrain, Japan, The Maldives, The Philippines, Singapore, and Sri Lanka have no land border with any other country on the map: look for them at sea.
• China has the most neighbors: it borders 16 countries. Once you place it, you have a landmark for many more.

Playing in class

Put the map on the interactive whiteboard and play in teams: each right answer scores a point, and if one team misses, the other gets a turn.

With the Challenge your class link, everyone gets the same questions in the same order, with no accounts or passwords, and each student sees their own score, time and streak. To practice on paper, there’s a printable worksheet of the same map with an answer key.

List of all 47 countries

1. Afghanistan Kabul
2. Armenia Yerevan
3. Azerbaijan Baku
4. Bahrain Manama
5. Bangladesh Dhaka
6. Bhutan Thimphu
7. Brunei Bandar Seri Begawan
8. Cambodia Phnom Penh
9. China Beijing
10. Cyprus Nicosia
11. East Timor Dili
12. Georgia Tbilisi
13. India New Delhi
14. Indonesia Jakarta
15. Iran Tehran
16. Iraq Baghdad
17. Israel Jerusalem
18. Japan Tokyo
19. Jordan Amman
20. Kazakhstan Astana
21. Kuwait Kuwait City
22. Kyrgyzstan Bishkek
23. Laos Vientiane
24. Lebanon Beirut
25. Malaysia Kuala Lumpur
26. Maldives Malé
27. Mongolia Ulaanbaatar
28. Myanmar Naypyidaw
29. Nepal Kathmandu
30. North Korea Pyongyang
31. Oman Muscat
32. Pakistan Islamabad
33. Philippines Manila
34. Qatar Doha
35. Saudi Arabia Riyadh
36. Singapore Singapore
37. South Korea Seoul
38. Sri Lanka Colombo
39. Syria Damascus
40. Tajikistan Dushanbe
41. Thailand Bangkok
42. Turkey Ankara
43. Turkmenistan Ashgabat
44. United Arab Emirates Abu Dhabi
45. Uzbekistan Tashkent
46. Vietnam Hanoi
47. Yemen Sanaa