Country Size Quiz

How to play

1. Two countries appear side by side (stacked on a phone). The first shows its total area; the second keeps its value hidden.
2. Decide whether the second one is higher or lower and press Higher or Lower.
3. The hidden value counts up and your answer is judged. When you are right, the second card moves across and a new one takes its place.
4. One wrong answer ends the run. There is no timer, and values stay fixed for the whole run. Countries without a value for this measure sit out, and two countries whose values read the same are never paired.
5. Your result is saved in this browser. Once enough people have played a game, the results also show how your score ranks, and you can copy or share an image of your result, or replay.

Understanding the comparison

Map projections mislead. Anything near the poles looks far larger than it is, so Greenland, Canada and Russia feel bigger than the numbers say, while countries near the equator look smaller. Algeria is larger than Greenland. Trust remembered figures over the shape you picture.

Why the map can give the wrong impression

A flat map cannot preserve every property of the globe. Projections that make directions or shapes convenient can exaggerate some regions, especially at high latitudes. The game compares total area in square kilometres, not the apparent footprint of a country on the world map.

Total area and land area are also different measures. Total area includes lakes and rivers, which is why Canada, with its many lakes, ranks second by total area but behind China and the United States by land area. Check the definition below before using a ranking you remember.

How this measure is defined

Total area is land plus inland water such as lakes and rivers; seas and coastal waters are not counted. Most figures come from the World Bank’s surface-area series. For a few countries that series counts more: coastal or internal sea waters for Canada and Norway, among others, and for Russia, Crimea, which Ukraine’s figure also includes. Those countries take their official total area instead, and the ranking below links each to its source.

Sources

Source: World Bank · Data period: 2023 · Collected: 2026-10-01 (UTC)

Total area in square kilometres: land plus inland water such as lakes and rivers. Seas and coastal waters are not counted. The World Bank figure for Canada, Croatia, the Dominican Republic, Monaco, Norway, Sweden and the United Arab Emirates also counts coastal or internal sea waters. The World Bank figure for Russia also counts Crimea, which Ukraine’s figure also includes. Their official total areas are used instead.

The collection date tells you when we retrieved the source, not when every underlying observation was made. A failed refresh does not advance that date. For comparisons, the snapshot loaded for your run supplies the answers.

• World Bank