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Countries More Populous Than Their Neighbors

Can you name the 17 countries of the world that have a larger population than any country they share a land border with?
Not including neighboring overseas territories/dependencies nor countries with no border
Also try the area version of this quiz by Gamer1162!
Population as of 1 January 2024. More info here.
Quiz by Quizzer6794
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Last updated: November 19, 2023
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First submittedMay 28, 2015
Times taken112,130
Average score82.4%
Rating4.99
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# Borders
Country
6
Algeria
10
Brazil
9
D. R. Congo
3
Egypt
6
Ethiopia
9
Germany
# Borders
Country
3
Ghana
1
Haiti
6
India
3
Indonesia
4
Nigeria
6
South Africa
# Borders
Country
1
South Korea
2
Sweden
4
Thailand
1
United Kingdom
2
United States
+2
Level 28
Feb 7, 2016
What about India? Or is that a country on China's coastline?
+16
Level 65
Feb 7, 2016
It's a country bordering China.
+9
Level 47
May 12, 2023
hasn't India over taken china in population now
+4
Level 59
Mar 23, 2017
It borders China over the Himalayas (either side of Nepal). Nothing to do with the coast.
+1
Level 47
Jun 23, 2023
r/whoosh
+15
Level 79
Dec 9, 2019
'on China's coastline' haha
+2
Level 60
Jul 27, 2016
Doesn't Iran have a bigger population than Turkey?
+2
Level 65
Jul 27, 2016
You are correct, thanks!
+2
Level 25
Aug 25, 2016
You and your Iran. Now I have to retake the quiz.
+1
Level 54
Nov 16, 2021
But iran does NOT have a bigger population than Pakistan, which in turn has a smaller population than india.
+2
Level 68
Jan 16, 2022
exactly, so the solution is to just remove turkey.

however it seems that turkey overtook iran in population again.

+3
Level 74
Oct 18, 2016
Looks like a lake counts as a "land" border? Otherwise Tanzania would have a larger population than any of it's neighbours. :-)
+2
Level 67
Dec 8, 2019
No, Tanzania and Uganda have a land border west of the lake.
+6
Level 74
Sep 30, 2021
Not the border I am referring to. Uganda has less population. The only possible country to have a higher population than Tanzania is Congo. However Congo and Tanzania their border is Lake Tanganyika.
+1
Level 90
Mar 29, 2017
I think Uzbekistan is now larger than Afghanistan and should be on the list now. According to Wikipedia 32 million in Uzbekistan and 28 million in Afghanistan. Other bordering countries

Turkmenistan: 5M

Tajikistan: 9M

Kyrgyzstan: 6M

Kazakhstan: 18M

+5
Level 71
Nov 14, 2021
Nope, Afghanistan has 39 million. Not sure where you got the 28 million statistic from.
+1
Level 28
Nov 14, 2021
your 4 years after him
+3
Level 71
Nov 14, 2021
Doesn't make a difference. In 2017, Afghanistan has 36 million, which was still more than Uzbekistan.
+1
Level 53
Apr 17, 2017
Such an interesting concept for a quiz! Good job!
+1
Level 63
May 27, 2017
Haiti is more populated than Dominican Republic according to Wikipedia.
+2
Level ∞
May 28, 2017
Added Uzbekistan and swapped Haiti in for the Dominican Republic.
+2
Level 70
May 28, 2017
Haiti is now in both this one and the less populated one http://www.jetpunk.com/user-quizzes/139806/countries-that-are-less-populated-than-their-neighbors
+3
Level 65
May 28, 2017
it's edited, after 2 complaints in an hour.
+1
Level 50
Jul 2, 2017
Has Uzbekistan a bigger population than Afghanistan?
+1
Level 66
Jul 2, 2017
The answer is, "Maybe." Different sources claim different populations for the two nations. Ostensibly, the source of this is Wikipedia in which case Uzbekistan is listed as having the slightly higher population.
+11
Level 63
Jul 3, 2017
Thought it said "popular". Immediately thought of Canada.
+2
Level 61
Jul 4, 2017
Soon, India will overthrow China by population.
+2
Level 65
Jul 4, 2017
Won't be long before soon
+1
Level 43
Jul 6, 2017
Darn, only missed Uzbekistan.
+2
Level 88
Dec 10, 2017
Wikipedia says that Uzbekistan's population is less than Afghanistan's, confused as to why Uzbekistan's here?
+1
Level 50
Jul 9, 2018
darn, only missed Sweden and South Korea
+2
Level 72
Mar 2, 2019
Afghanistan has for a long time ago passed Uzbekistan's population.
+2
Level ∞
Jul 24, 2019
You're right. This has been updated. Probably had some bad data for Afghanistan previously because of all the wars.
+1
Level 90
Jul 25, 2019
What are we using as the source? Wikipedia on the individual countries page and List of countries and dependencies by population still shows Uzbekistan as having 500K more people.
+2
Level 70
Jul 25, 2019
This would have been much harder were the answers not alphabetical. That really helped zero in on the last couple I was missing.
+1
Level 72
Sep 3, 2019
Freaking Ghana...got the rest.
+2
Level 50
Oct 9, 2019
Yemen should be here since they have a higher population than that of Saudi Arabia and Oman (in which they border).
+2
Level 65
Oct 9, 2019
Saudi Arabia has 34 million people.
+1
Level 79
Dec 9, 2019
You are wrong, and there's no need for 'in' before' which'
+1
Level 43
Jul 7, 2020
yemen does not has more than SA
+1
Level 43
Jul 7, 2020
also JackintheBox ha you just don't know how to speak british :)
+1
Level 69
Dec 8, 2019
this was fun!
+1
Level 65
Dec 8, 2019
Thanks!
+1
Level 70
Dec 8, 2019
Great quiz - maybe just a little too much time.
+1
Level 65
Dec 8, 2019
The average score is roughly 80% so the time is good for now :)
+1
Level 36
Mar 11, 2020
Nigeria,Uzbékistan?
+1
Level 43
Jul 7, 2020
good point
+1
Level 56
May 6, 2020
Turkey has re-overtaken Iran according to https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/population-by-country/, meaning it should be on here.
+1
Level 43
Jul 7, 2020
Tanzania should be on here. Don't go saying "Oh but it borders DR Congo", because maritime borders don't even count.
+1
Level 72
Feb 13, 2023
Lake and river borders still count.
+1
Level 34
Jul 7, 2020
Lakes and rivers do
+1
Level 82
Aug 16, 2020
China. I can't believe I missed China.
+1
Level 65
Aug 16, 2020
Well I missed Nigeria🤪
+1
Level 49
Aug 20, 2020
which bordering country has more than saudi arabia?
+1
Level 43
Aug 31, 2020
Iraq I think
+3
Level 68
Feb 2, 2021
After years on Jetpunk, I somehow still didn't know that Iran borders Turkey. I blame someone else.
+1
Level ∞
Sep 29, 2021
With the latest update Turkey has passed Iran.
+2
Level 58
Aug 3, 2021
Nice quiz :)

Some countries are a bit tricky, its easy to forget about Haiti or South Korea

+1
Level 67
Aug 3, 2021
Missed Ghana and South Korea
+3
Level 66
Sep 29, 2021
Only got Ghana due to plenty of time to alphabetically guess.
+2
Level 75
Sep 30, 2021
Yeah I'll admit that wouldn't have guessed Ghana if it wasn't for the alphabetical organisation either.
+1
Level 38
Oct 6, 2021
same lmao
+1
Level 79
Oct 5, 2021
I forgot China! (I thought I had already typed it, because of a previous quiz I had just done.)
+1
Level 38
Oct 6, 2021
18/18 at my first try! great quiz!
+1
Level 88
Oct 14, 2021
D'oh! I thought about UK and several others immediately, even before hitting "start quiz." Typed the others, then never got UK thinking I had already typed it. Maddening...
+1
Level 72
Nov 11, 2021
what a brilliant quiz, really enjoyed this as had to think not of the most populous countries but those that only border one other, excellent, thank you.
+1
Level 58
Nov 14, 2021
Great idea for a quiz, really made me think
+4
Level 69
Nov 14, 2021
Only got the last one, Ghana, because they were in alphabetical order and I knew it had to start with G. You could mix up the order of the answers, if you wanted to make it more challenging.
+5
Level 58
Nov 15, 2021
Am Swedish, missed Sweden. Lovely.
+2
Level 23
Nov 19, 2021
boom i got all correct i kinda almost forget DRC lol
+1
Level 36
Feb 3, 2022
TIL that Afghanistan is more populous than Uzbekistan.
+1
Level 59
May 31, 2023
..very nice quiz..but too easy...
+5
Level 52
May 31, 2023
India? It just became the most populated.
+1
Level 67
May 31, 2023
Wow, didn't realize it was gonna happen now, I was thinking maybe a couple more years
+1
Level 67
May 31, 2023
Missed Nigeria and Ghana
+7
Level 76
Jun 29, 2023
I think it's funny how Panama doesn't count because of Costa Rica, which doesn't count because of Nicaragua, which doesn't count because of Honduras, which doesn't count because of Guatemala, which doesn't count because of Mexico, which doesn't count because of the United States, meaning no Central American countries make the list.
+3
Level 83
Jun 29, 2023
This appeared as updated, and yet it has China, not India. India has overtaken China.
+1
Level 80
Jun 29, 2023
That's exactly why I just scrolled down. This is not news...
+2
Level 80
Jun 29, 2023
I believe Quizmaster is going off of the JetPunk population chart which shows that India is short by a few million, but it will surpass China in the next year.
+3
Level 52
Jun 29, 2023
India has surpassed China's population! This quiz needs an update.
+7
Level ∞
Jun 30, 2023
Not yet. Hong Kong exists.

Wait until October.

+1
Level 58
Jun 30, 2023
Ohhh that's why you didnt consider india above china! I was very confused, I thought india surpassed china including hongkong
+2
Level 58
Jun 30, 2023
The fact its in alphabetical order makes the quiz easier. I would've ordered it by # of Borders
+2
Level ∞
Jul 7, 2023
What is this publication and why should we listen to them over official stats published by the UN?
+1
Level 80
Jul 7, 2023
https://www.un.org/development/desa/pd/sites/www.un.org.development.desa.pd/files/undesa_pd_2023_policy-brief-153.pdf
+3
Level 76
Jul 9, 2023
Thanks CalmDown - you've found the link I meant to post, which is from the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
+1
Level 80
Jul 11, 2023
It is indeed an official brief from the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs regarding this development some time ago. Given that he's stopped responding to these comments, presumably Quizmaster is currently in the process of updating the quiz.
+3
Level ∞
Nov 19, 2023
You forgot to add Hong Kong to China's population.

The quiz has now been updated as India has now passed China even accounting for Hong Kong.

+3
Level 68
Jul 7, 2023
India. Read the news.
+1
Level 71
Jul 31, 2023
I'm sure you've gotten this already but India has overtaken China in population
+1
Level 63
Aug 20, 2023
Replace China with India.
+2
Level 66
Dec 3, 2023
please*
+1
Level 72
Oct 13, 2023
Never would've gotten Ghana if it wasn't in alphabetical order. Nice quiz!
+1
Level 45
Dec 3, 2023
Wow, got 100% on my first try.
+5
Level 71
Dec 3, 2023
China was replaced by India, that is OK, the problem that it appears at China's place in the alphabetic order, it should be just before Indonesia.
+1
Level ∞
Dec 3, 2023
Fixed
+1
Level 54
Dec 3, 2023
Please change the description as it looks like u have made Quizmaster's note public.
+1
Level 36
Dec 4, 2023
18/19 what the fxxk I can't believe i missed uk......
+1
Level 71
Dec 5, 2023
China?
+1
Level 38
Mar 11, 2024
Missed Ghana :(