Good point! My source (Wikipedia) includes them as separate countries, and counts their populations as two, too. (who knew Bangladesh would be more populous than Pakistan in 1950?)
...then your source is wrong. Bangladesh wasn't a country until 1971.
Those figures need to be added together into Pakistan, and a new country found to round out the top 5 in Asia. (Not to mention the other issues - mentioned by other commenters regarding countries that didn't exist in 1950.)
OR you can change the quiz to be something like "Modern-day countries with the highest population in 1950," and likewise switch USSR and West Germany to be their modern equivalents.
As it is, it's completely inconsistent, and for that reason, is not a good quiz.
Why does the European section include the USSR and uses the Federal Republic of Germany boundaries from before reunification while the rest uses modern borders? As already mentioned, Bangladesh was then a part of Pakistan. Also, Nigeria, the DRC, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, and Solomon Islands were colonies of Belgium (DRC) or UK (the other four) in 1950.
Interesting... You included the Soviet Union and West Germany which were countries in 1950, but many of these weren't (independent) countries yet, e.g. Nigeria, 'DR Congo' (which by the way was Belgian Congo), Papua New Guinea, Fiji and the Solomon Islands. Bangladesh did not exist yet as it was part of Pakistan. Also, does India include population for Portuguese and French India in the source, does South Africa include South West Africa (then under South African administration), and does China include Tibet (only annexed in 1951)?
I think you either need to use the modern countries, or the countries that existed then, but not both. Or call it 'countries or colonies'. Even then, Pakistan was a single country at the time...
Incredibly inconsistent. Quite Eurocentric, even, as you obviously care about what was happening in Europe in 1950 far more than you care about what was happening in Asia, Africa, or Oceania. There weren't even five independent nations in Oceania in 1950; to get to 3 you need to include Indonesia. Either fix Europe to make the quiz about modern-day countries whose land was the most populated in 1950, or fix Africa, Asia, and Oceania to make the quiz about which countries had the most population in each continent in 1950.
Those figures need to be added together into Pakistan, and a new country found to round out the top 5 in Asia. (Not to mention the other issues - mentioned by other commenters regarding countries that didn't exist in 1950.)
OR you can change the quiz to be something like "Modern-day countries with the highest population in 1950," and likewise switch USSR and West Germany to be their modern equivalents.
As it is, it's completely inconsistent, and for that reason, is not a good quiz.