3 Easy Ways to Learn Geography Facts

Last Updated on April 7, 2024 by Adam Watts

Below are 3 easy ways to learn geography facts. Want to know the capital of Mali? The fact that a place called Ngerulmud actually exists, and that it’s the capital of Palau, which is also a place that exists? The currency of Bhutan? Learn all of the above and more.

I’d love to visit every country in the world and learn everything first-hand, of course, but that’s not going to happen anytime soon. In lieu of seeing them in person, I like learning the basics of each country. Capitals, flags, languages, currencies, etc. If you’re like me, let me help out with 3 easy ways to learn geography facts.

1: The World Geography mobile app

Hands down the best way to learn geography facts (that I’ve found at least) is an app called World Geography, available on iOS here and Android [edit: it seems Android is currently not available, unfortunately!].

World Geography is free, has minimal ads, and is easy to play in few-minute chunks while you’re on the subway or waiting at the post office or any of the other millions of places we spend our lives waiting for things. Also, if you play for what will probably amount to years, you can unlock the “arable land” category and find out the amount of arable land in Brunei. Drop me a line if you find that out, I’ve been dying to know.

The way it works is you select what category you want to learn and at what difficulty level (but categories and difficulties both have to be gradually unlocked), and how many questions you want to answer. The easiest difficult level gives you a question with four possible answers (e.g. is the capital of France: A) Paris B) Berlin C) Tokyo D) Lima), but you can eventually unlock the option to have to type in the capital without options. This system really helped me learn all the capitals, most of the flags (a lot of flags in Africa still trip me up), currencies, etc.

2: Sporcle

Second on the list of easy ways to learn geography is Sporcle. Sporcle is one of the biggest trivia/quiz websites in the world. It has more than a million user-generated quizzes that have been played over three billion times. Here’s one example quiz asking you to name every country in Africa:

They have quizzes on every topic imaginable, but for the purpose of being relevant to this blog post, head to the Geography category and get lost in a world of random quizzes. Click here for a random Geography quiz. I’ve done a lot of Sporcle over the years and by itself I wouldn’t say it’s the best way to learn geography, but the quizzes are creative, interesting, and a great supplement to other tools, e.g. the World Geography app.

Also, Sporcle is obsessed with Kyrgyzstan for reasons I don’t understand but embrace wholeheartedly. (Capital: Bishkek)

3: Geography Now on YouTube

Many times I’ve searched good travel or geography channels on YouTube, but I often come back to Geography Now. Their videos typically focus on one country and provide a rapid-fire deep dive into that country, its history, its topography, its politics, and some famous people from there. They’re very enthusiastic and dorky and fun.

I’ve struggled to find other good YouTube channels to learn geography facts, so if anyone has any recommendations, please let me know. I don’t want to spend thirty minutes watching some dude’s vlog from some hostel in Honduras. Probably this guy.

There you have it. There are three easily-accessible, great ways to learn geography facts. So even if you can’t travel right now, if you learn geography facts, you can impress people. To some extent I mean: if you know the exact fertility rate of Suriname you probably don’t have friends to impress. And if you’re lying to yourself and say you don’t care about impressing other people, then impress yourself when you destroy a World Capitals category on Jeopardy! or whatever your preferred quiz show is.