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Most Populous River Basins

Name the rivers of the world that have the most people living in their drainage basin.
Includes the area drained by the river and all its tributaries as it flows to the sea
Figures are approximate
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: November 5, 2014
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First submittedNovember 4, 2014
Times taken34,074
Average score52.6%
Rating4.64
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Population
River Basin
600 m
Ganges / Brahmaputra
420 m
Yangtze
360 m
Nile
300 m
Indus
250 m
Pearl
200 m
Yellow
100 m
Mississippi
100 m
Niger
100 m
Paraná / Rio de la Plata
80 m
Danube
Population
River Basin
75 m
Amur
70 m
Krishna
60 m
Congo
60 m
Mekong
60 m
Godavari
55 m
Volga
50 m
St. Lawrence
50 m
Tigris / Euphrates
50 m
Rhine
+15
Level ∞
Nov 4, 2014
This quiz might need a couple of revisions before it is finished. There is no single source with good data for this, so I did some original research that involved a certain amount of guessing. Please let me know if there are any glaring omissions or mistakes.
+5
Level 69
Jan 9, 2017
Good quiz. I am struggling to believe though, that the Nile has a river basin population of 360 million. It just doesn't add up for me.
+16
Level 82
Jan 11, 2017
Egypt, Sudan, south Sudan, Uganda, part of Ethiopia, DRC, ... Easily 360
+3
Level 66
Aug 1, 2018
Really needs research from Quizmaster. Respect!
+3
Level 90
Nov 4, 2014
Typing "Rio de la Plata" fills in the clue for Yangtze, but does not work for Parana/RDLP. Also, Euphrates doesn't work for Tigris/Euphrates.
+3
Level ∞
Nov 5, 2014
Fixed
+3
Level 67
Dec 18, 2014
Sweet quiz idea
+12
Level 66
Dec 18, 2014
you should accept Donau as Danube, because it´s know like that in many countries
+1
Level 74
Dec 18, 2014
Love this quiz idea!
+1
Level 46
Dec 20, 2014
don't really understand this. how can Amazon not be in the list?
+17
Level ∞
Dec 20, 2014
Name a major city in the Amazon basin. There aren't many.
+10
Level 32
Feb 23, 2016
I can only think of Manaus
+2
Level 79
Dec 14, 2020
Macapá, Santarém, Manaus (and some smaller ones) (I used Google Maps)
+5
Level 43
Dec 14, 2020
Manaus; Belém; Macapá; Parintins; Coari; Tefé; Santarém; Porto Velho; Itacoatiara; Manacapuru; Tabatinga... but they aren't too much big (and the majority is in Brazil), except Manaus and Belém. Well, the biggest is not always the biggest...
+1
Level 72
Mar 18, 2024
Dude you're from Brazil
+4
Level 69
Apr 17, 2015
Hmm... Irrawaddy and Dnieper didn't make the cut?
+3
Level ∞
Oct 5, 2016
Good suggestions but I think both just barely miss the cut.
+2
Level 73
Jan 3, 2017
I tried Irrawaddy too, I think it just misses the cut because a huge part of Burmese population lives near it.
+2
Level 66
Apr 22, 2020
I tried dnieper, thinking I finally knew how to write it in english, but then doubted.
+2
Level 63
Feb 7, 2016
What about the Rio Grande?
+3
Level ∞
Oct 5, 2016
I'd say probably around 10-20 million.
+2
Level 67
Dec 14, 2020
Cities like El Paso, Albuquerque, Ciudad Juarez, Laredo, Nuevo Laredo, and Las Cruces are on the Rio Grande.
+2
Level 73
Jan 3, 2017
Edogawa didn't make the cut? It goes well into Kantō and the population right there is massive.
+5
Level 86
Oct 10, 2018
The Edo is less than 60 km long and only passes through one metropolitan area. It's a massive metro area to be sure, but citypopulation.de still has it at less than 40 million.
+1
Level 85
Jan 9, 2017
Related quiz: River Deltas on the Map http://www.jetpunk.com/user-quizzes/154362/river-deltas-on-the-map
+1
Level 68
Jan 9, 2017
Interesting quiz.
+2
Level 67
Jan 9, 2017
Very fun. Could you do this with mountain ranges or coastlines as well?
+4
Level 70
Jan 9, 2017
Would love to see versions for mountain ranges, lakes, seas, bays and peninsulas, to name a few.
+1
Level 60
Jan 19, 2017
I only forgot Amur,Rhine & st lawrance
+2
Level 63
Jan 24, 2017
11/19 is really something for someone who is really bad at rivers. Didn't expect that to be above average (9).
+4
Level 74
Aug 9, 2018
Really thought the Zambezi could make it, as the basin is quite large. Worked it out and get to 42.7 million. Most of Zambia (83% = 13.8), Zimbabwe (57% = 9.2) and Malawi (83% = 15). Some realistic/conservative numbers for Angola (Moxoco+ = 0.7), Botswana (Chobe+ 0.1), Namibia (Zambezi 0.1), Tanzania (Distr Ileje,Kyela, Rungwe, Makete, Ludewa and Mbina - est. 0.7) and Mozambique (Tete+ = 3.1) and it seems the 50 million is a stretch. Province and district by district calculated to work out the % and population estimates. Might be useful info for another quiz though. :)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zambezi#/media/File:Zambezi_river_basin-en.svg

+3
Level 86
Oct 10, 2018
Very enjoyable quiz!
+3
Level 77
Oct 19, 2018
Agree. I learnt about a couple of rivers with which I wasn't familiar (the least-guessed two) - both in India.
+1
Level 63
Dec 14, 2020
mby make zaire and donau correct answers, as they are in most other quizes... ty
+1
Level 72
Dec 14, 2020
Rats... I forgot an obvious one, and just after I read an article about a golf course they had tried developing near Baghdad called Tigris Woods.
+1
Level 67
Dec 14, 2020
Please accept 'Yangzi' for Yangtze. Wikipedia reads 'Yangtze or Yangzi'. Also, pinyin, the most common transliteration of Chinese, uses 'z' not 'tz' for that consonant.
+1
Level 51
Dec 17, 2020
Great Quizz !! Please accept Saint-Laurent or St-Laurent for Saint Lawrence River, this is how we say it in French, the original name in Québec. 😊⚜️👌🏼
+2
Level 56
Jul 31, 2021
Jeszcze Wisłą!!!
+2
Level 64
May 10, 2022
Hudson River? NYC is on it, i'd figure it might be here, though I bet I'm terribly wrong.
+1
Level 81
Dec 1, 2022
Ack! I tried "silver".
+1
Level 49
Feb 16, 2024
Huai River should be added in this quiz. There were over 170M people living in its basin in 2005 -- even without counting the population along the North Jiangsu Main Irrigation Canal, which is its main passage into the ocean.

It's true that during recent years the Huai River basin has experienced some outflow of pupulation, but it should still be well beyond 150M.