Geography Quiz Answers

What is the capital of Canada?  Ottowa (not Toronto)

What is the capital of Australia?  Canberra (not Sydney)

By land, what is the minimum number of countries you have to cross to get from Norway to North Korea?  One, Russia borders both. 

What is the third largest country by population?  The United States

Which country has the largest Christian population in the world?  The United States

What country has most of the world's Muslims? Indonesia

How many countries in Scandinavia are not in the EU?  Depending on your definition of Scandinavia: The most narrow definition is continental Norway, Denmark and Sweden.  Norway is not part of the EU---so one.  However, Iceland is also sometimes considered part of Scandinavia and is not in the EU---two.  Greenland is politically a part of Denmark and was part of the EEC (European Economic Community, which was a forerunner to the EU) but voted to withdraw in 1982---so perhaps the answer is three.  Svalbard is a semi-international area that is administered as a part of Norway, but it is complicated (see the Svalbard treaty and the Politics of Svalbard), for example, US citizens can live and work there without a visa---so maybe the answer climbs to three and a half.  I am actually quite proud of knowing about this.  One time while living in Europe a French citizen accused me of not knowing about geography because I was an American.  Then a few sentences later he couldn't remember the name of "the country in Scandinavia that was not part of the EU" and I got to rake him over the coals with my response (he was thinking of Norway, but I didn't let him get off so easily).  It is a stretch but we could try to push the number up even higher; the Kola Norwegians live in what is today a part of Russia, which is not in the EU; it is not clear to me that the Kola Peninsula and the area around Murmansk should not be considered part of the Scandinavian Peninsula, especially given the cultural and historical ties to Norway---three and three quarters.  Another complicated answer is how many nations in Scandinavia are part of the EU?  Read about Åland, the Faroe Islands, and Sápmi, for a start. 

 Apart from Mexico and Canada, which the US shares borders with, what is the closest country to the US geographically? Let's jump to one of the most extreme stretches.  It could be argued that the US also shares a land border with Chile and New Zealand...to be continued.