Laender
12 cards from across every topic, each citing a source. Tap one to open it in the feed.
- Deutschland, Germany, Allemagne, Niemcy, Saksa: one country, five names.
An endonym is the name a group gives itself: Deutschland. An exonym is the name from outside: Germany in English …
- How country codes work and why Switzerland is CH.
ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 from 1974 gives every country two letters; 249 codes live in internet domains and IBANs. The codes …
- How many countries are there? Depends who you ask.
The United Nations has 193 member states plus two observers (Vatican City, Palestine). Kosovo is recognised by around …
- In some countries half the population is under 16.
Median age splits a population into two equal halves. In Niger it is around 15 years; in Japan, Italy and Germany it is …
- Only one national flag in the world isn't a rectangle.
Nepal's flag is two stacked pennants, red with a blue border, and the only one taller than it is wide. The current form …
- Only three countries never made the metric system mandatory.
The USA, Liberia and Myanmar are the only states without a law requiring metric units. As early as 2011, 95% of the …
- Since 2022, Turkey is no longer called Turkey at the UN.
On 4 December 2021 President Erdoğan issued a circular ordering exports to be labelled "Made in Türkiye" instead of …
- Switzerland has no capital city by law.
Bern has been the "federal city" since 28 November 1848, seat of parliament and government. But the constitution names …
- The EU shares a land border with Brazil.
French Guiana in South America is a full part of France and therefore of the EU, using the euro. Its 730 km border with …
- The world's smallest state fits inside a city park.
Vatican City covers 0.44 km², roughly 60 football pitches, entirely inside Rome. About 900 people live there. The state …
- Two countries need two border crossings to reach the sea.
Around 44 countries have no coastline. Only two are doubly landlocked, surrounded entirely by other landlocked states …
- Why country comparisons in absolute numbers almost always mislead.
A country with 1.4 billion people tops nearly every total: cars, emissions, accidents. That says little about any …