Countries of North America

How to play

1. Press Start. You have 2 minutes for all 23 countries.
2. Type a country’s name. It counts as soon as it matches and turns green on the map; a country from another continent clears the box, with a note saying where it is.
3. Pause whenever you like. When the time is up, the lists below the map show what you named and what you missed.

About the countries of North America

The continent’s 23 countries fall into three groups. Three large countries share the mainland north of the tropics, seven fill the narrow land bridge of Central America, and thirteen are island nations in the Caribbean. The islands are where most points are lost: eight are small enough to be marked with a circle on the map, one island is shared by two countries, and several countries are named after two islands at once.

Territories are the other trap. Greenland, Puerto Rico, Bermuda and a dozen other islands belong to larger countries, some of them in Europe, so they aren’t answers and the map shows them in a lighter shade. Work north to south along the mainland, then sweep the Caribbean from the large islands in the west along the arc of small ones to the east and south.

Which countries count

North America here follows the UN’s grouping of countries and includes Central America and the Caribbean. Territories and dependencies aren’t answers, and land outside the quiz is shown in a lighter shade.

Spelling: capitals, accents, spaces and punctuation don’t matter, and well-known alternative names count.

The accepted alternative names appear here when your quiz ends, so they don’t give any answers away.

Questions

Is Central America a separate continent?

Not in this quiz. The UN groups Central America and the Caribbean with North America, and so do most atlases in English, so their countries count here.

Why isn’t Greenland an answer?

Greenland governs itself but is part of the Kingdom of Denmark, so it isn’t a sovereign country. It is shown in a lighter shade in the far north-east of the map.

More geography

• Capitals of North America: the same countries, naming their capitals
• Flags of North America: the same countries, named from their flags
• Countries of the World: all 197 at once
• Other continents: Countries of Africa, Countries of Asia, Countries of Europe, Countries of South America, Countries of Oceania

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