10 rounds a day
Nations Daily Quiz
Every day, 10 rounds with four answers to choose from: six on published statistics, and one each on a flag, a capital, a dot on a map and a country's own numbers. A new puzzle every day at 00:00 UTC.
Whose flag is this?
Tap the answer you think is right. There is no clock.
01Method
How the puzzles are made
- Published numbers, untouched. Every value is the newest edition of a statistic on this site, printed exactly as its own page prints it, with its year and its publisher.
- Measurements, not verdicts. No round rates a government or counts deaths. Where a statistic has no better end, the question never asks which country is “better”.
- Fair rounds. The right answer is always clear of the next best — never a tie or a near-tie — and no round sets side by side two countries where one disputes the other’s existence or the two are at war.
- No side taken. The map shows land with no borders drawn. Places whose status is disputed are never the subject of a flag, capital or map round, and no disputed capital is asked about.
- Countries you have heard of. Every country in the quiz has at least 1 million people, and no country appears twice in a day.
- Chosen ahead, never changed. Puzzles are written weeks ahead by a program, under these rules, and an editor can strike out any round. Once a puzzle may have been played, it stays as it was.
- Your results stay with you. The day’s answers are kept in your own browser only, and practice rounds are not kept at all. What is kept, and how to delete it →
02Questions
About the Nations Daily Quiz
When does a new puzzle start?
Every day at 00:00 UTC — 05:00 in Pakistan, 05:30 in India, 08:00 in China, and the evening before across the Americas. Everyone plays the same puzzle on the same day, which is why a shared score means something.
Where do the numbers, flags and maps come from?
Each statistic round is one statistic from this site, at its newest edition, printed exactly as the statistic’s own page prints it, with the year it describes and the organisation that published it. Flags are the flag-icons drawings (MIT licence), capitals are as recorded on Wikidata, and the map is Natural Earth’s, drawn with no borders.
Why these statistics and not others?
They measure things — people, land, money, work, food, energy, schooling — rather than rate governments, and none of them counts deaths. A green tick is the wrong frame for either. All the numbers in a round describe the same year.
Why are some places never in the flag, capital or map rounds?
Because their status is itself disputed, and a quiz that asked about them would take a side. They still appear in statistic rounds, as they do everywhere else on this site. For the same reason, no capital whose status is disputed is asked about, and the map draws no borders.
Is a close round a trick?
No. The right answer is always clear of the next best: never a tie, never a near-tie, and never two numbers that would print the same. Rounds start easy and get harder, so the last round of the day is the hardest.
What is “Keep playing”?
Once the day’s puzzle is done, practice rounds under the same rules, for as long as you like. They are not scored, saved or shared — only the day’s puzzle counts towards your streak.
Does the quiz remember me?
It remembers your answers and your streak in your own browser, and nowhere else — nothing is sent to us. The result screen has a button that forgets them. The privacy policy has the details.