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Most Populous Countries with Exceptions

Can you name the most populous countries whose population is mostly NOT in Asia?
For countries that are partly in Asia, we will count only their non-Asian population
As of 1 January 2025. More info here.
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: January 7, 2025
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First submittedOctober 4, 2016
Times taken109,907
Average score85.0%
Rating4.98
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Population
Country
350 m
United States
235 m
Nigeria
212 m
Brazil
134 m
Ethiopia
131 m
Mexico
118 m
Egypt
111 m
Russia
Population
Country
111 m
D. R. Congo
84.3 m
Germany
69.9 m
United Kingdom
69.6 m
Tanzania
69.2 m
France
64.4 m
South Africa
59.2 m
Italy
Population
Country
57.0 m
Kenya
53.2 m
Colombia
50.9 m
Sudan
50.7 m
Uganda
47.9 m
Spain
45.9 m
Argentina
82 Comments
+32
Level 66
Mar 1, 2017
Bit harder than I thought it would be, the ones lower down from Africa I've never considered before for population quizzes.
+5
Level 74
Mar 6, 2017
America first?
+58
Level 68
Mar 6, 2017
Well, its third in population in the world and the first two are in Asia...
+6
Level 73
Oct 13, 2019
It is rather big, like brazil
+15
Level 65
Jul 17, 2020
America is a continent, not a country.
+6
Level 80
May 16, 2021
I consider it to be both!
+2
Level 69
Mar 12, 2022
that is north america you are thinking of
+5
Level 40
Apr 3, 2022
america is north america and south america aka the americas
+4
Level 54
Feb 22, 2023
ok but nobody calls the americas "america"
+7
Level 55
Feb 23, 2023
Many people call the Americas "America".
+4
Level 79
Mar 10, 2023
We all know it is far more commonly used to refer to the US. Those protestors who shout "Death to America" are not talking about the Americas.
+1
Level 57
Apr 8, 2025
Maybe some of them are you don't know if they just prefer the Old World
+1
Level 52
Jun 2, 2025
They should tho, instead of the US that thinks they’re the center of the universe and uses “America” instead
+1
Level 45
Jan 24, 2025
Bro where do you live?!
+1
Level 80
May 16, 2021
America first (with exceptions)!
+8
Level 46
May 18, 2021
I can see all the angry South Americans who just want to reply with "AMERICA IS A CONTINENT REEEEE" lol
+9
Level 56
Sep 27, 2021
Two continents.
+11
Level 84
Sep 30, 2021
I'm surprised no-one's jumped all over this.

As a demonym, the term 'American' refers to the USA, and also to the continent as a whole. 'America' is synonymous with the USA and also with the continent as a whole, or even the two continents if you prefer.

It isn't a divisive issue, or at least it shouldn't be. It simply is.

If you can't grasp this simple concept, then you need to try a little bit harder.

+5
Level 55
Jan 23, 2022
That meaning is not true for all languages. In Spanish for example American refers to the continent, not the USA, that's why spanish speakers don't like this very much.
+4
Level 66
Jan 12, 2025
Which is fair, however in English you'd run into the opposite problem, since you can't really refer to people from the United States as "United Statesers." That's why Brits are "British" and Americans are "American." Everyone still needs a demonym.
+1
Level 51
Feb 22, 2023
fr
+1
Level 62
Feb 22, 2023
Huh nobody even said the phrases "USA", "U.S.A.", "US", "U.S.", "United States" or "United States of America" in this comment or its subsequent replies except for 2.
+10
Level 34
Mar 6, 2017
Knarf is right. The majority of people live in European Russia, west of the Ural Mountains. Past that is small villages and frozen tundra.
+45
Level 45
Mar 6, 2017
Well, first part is true. But I wouldn't count Novosibirsk (third largest City in Russia), Omsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Chelyabinsk, Khabarovsk, Vladivostok... as "small villages".
+118
Level 56
Mar 7, 2017
Of course not! They're frozen tundra.
+2
Level 55
Feb 22, 2023
I think I just found the best comment on this site, and it is almost six years old. I peed myself while laughing.
+5
Level 79
Feb 6, 2021
Bless you
+7
Level 66
Mar 6, 2017
Honorable mentions: Algeria, Uganda, and Poland.
+10
Level 73
Oct 13, 2019
Uganda is on the list, and not even last
+38
Level 80
Oct 13, 2019
Uganda might not have been on the list at the time of that comment.
+2
Level 75
May 16, 2020
Maybe Elan wanted to say they were some close calls.
+16
Level 65
Mar 6, 2017
Canada, the 2nd biggest country in the world by land area, still cannot make this list.
+7
Level 77
Oct 13, 2019
What's your point? It shouldn't be a mystery that Canada is not on this list if you understand Canadian geography. Over 80% of the land is uninhabitable because of permafrost. Before you throw in Russia as a retort, be aware that it has less land above the arctic circle than Canada, and although about 77% of its landmass is in Asia, the majority of its massive population (about 110M) live on the European side and that's how it makes this list. Canada has a population of close to 37M...which is how it doesn't make this list.
+57
Level 64
Oct 14, 2019
Is there a reason you seem to be actually offended by geography's comment?
+32
Level 58
Oct 16, 2019
^^^TheQuizzler - hahahaha, right? Dude bleeds maple syrup.
+10
Level 50
May 15, 2021
Uganda has more people than Canada. It's kinda disturbing. Africans really need to start doing family planning.
+5
Level 69
Mar 12, 2022
a bit hard when you have a gdp of $817 per capita and one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world - the reason poor countries have so many people is because if one of them dies then they are replaceable.
+2
Level 79
Mar 10, 2023
No, and that's an absurd suggestion.
+4
Level 49
Jan 23, 2025
The Netherlands have more people than Botswana. It's kinda disturbing. Europeans really need to start doing family planning.
+1
Level 55
Jan 23, 2025
Botswana is one of the richest African countries; they're likely further on in the Demographics Transition Model than Uganda or Mali, e.g.
+1
Level 28
Jul 2, 2021
Canada is 4th in land area and 2nd in total area
+1
Level 21
Jun 12, 2023
yeah bc there 36 mil there- thats nothing compared to china or even brazil. Canada has one of the smallest pop densitys. if u go there ull see
+2
Level 63
Mar 6, 2017
100%

Drop that hundo!!!

+3
Level 26
Mar 7, 2017
Wow got the last one a millisecond before time ran out.
+6
Level 62
Mar 7, 2017
I started to name cities

I was so confused at first

+1
Level 28
Mar 8, 2017
Ill help u out. You have the answers from wikipedia so ill help u out by giving u actual, real websites that have the precise number of country's populations. here is the link. http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/population-by-country/
+20
Level 69
Oct 14, 2019
Did they count them all themselves?
+15
Level 62
May 2, 2021
Ah yes, my favorite fake, fictional website, Wikipedia.
+2
Level 28
Mar 8, 2017
Then go to this link for real, live stats of top twenty.

http:/ www.worldometers.info/world-population/

+25
Level 66
Oct 14, 2019
Lol, live stats. Like the website's got a battalion out there, monitoring births.
+12
Level 67
May 14, 2021
You didn't have an agent from Worldometers present at your birth?
+1
Level 38
Aug 28, 2024
when a birth certificate is received, the population count is increased(i think so) or else they put a timer based on approximately how many people are born per minute or hour
+23
Level 53
May 12, 2017
dunno why i typed in tonga lol
+6
Level 66
Nov 4, 2017
Missed Sudan... darn it.
+4
Level 45
Jan 4, 2018
Missed Ukraine and Kenya......
+2
Level 77
Jan 7, 2018
Peru?
+7
Level 88
Jul 24, 2018
Roughly 10 million short of making this list.
+3
Level 48
Dec 5, 2018
Great quiz but since when is Sudan more populous than Algeria?
+3
Level 81
Jul 24, 2019
They both have slightly under 42 million people. According to worldometers.info Algeria is currently slightly ahead but Sudan was in the lead last year. Neither appear on the quiz, now, though.
+3
Level 46
Aug 3, 2019
And I completely forgot Germany for the last 2 minutes although I got Ukraine and Uganda early...
+2
Level 73
Oct 13, 2019
Hm this is the first time scoring the average (18) gives me 4 points usually scoring the average gives me a maxmum of 2. I missed spain and uganda.
+1
Level 55
Oct 13, 2019
Maybe I'm missing something here, but isn't Russia part of Asia as well as Europe?
+9
Level 90
Oct 13, 2019
The first caveat states: "For countries that are partly in Asia, we will count their non-Asian population"
+3
Level 78
Jan 28, 2021
So in the Jan 2021 revision of this quiz, these 20 countries represent ~2 billion people or about 1/4 of the world's population. Add in China and India with collectively ~2.5 billion, and over half the people in the world are in these 22 countries.

That leaves 174 countries on the JetPunk list to make up the other half of the world. (I don't really have a point, I am just in awe of how population gets concentrated.)

+4
Level 87
Jan 28, 2021
This comment reminded me of the "Valeriepieris Circle" meme that was popular a few years ago. It shows a circle covering the most densely populated part of Asia, with the observation that more people live inside the circle than outside it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valeriepieris_circle

+9
Level 88
Jan 28, 2021
Who needs 22 countries? You can get to half the world's population with just 7: China, India, United States, Indonesia, Pakistan, Brazil, and Nigeria.
+2
Level 56
Sep 27, 2021
Yeah! Barely need Nigeria.
+4
Level 66
Mar 28, 2021
Bruh everytime I forget uganda.....
+1
Level 33
May 15, 2021
I got almost everyone in the first 90 secs than took 2 mins to figure out Uganda lol
+2
Level 66
Apr 27, 2021
I think Russia is includes in Asia too.
+2
Level 52
May 14, 2021
I totally forgot about Russia since part of it is in Asia but Moscow and some other major citys are in Russia's Europe.
+2
Level 69
May 14, 2021
This quiz got me to level 55. Thank you.
+4
Level 69
Aug 17, 2021
And I'm still at 55. I haven't been doing much, have I?
+1
Level 73
Jun 22, 2024
68 now, so you've been busy ;)
+1
Level 46
May 23, 2021
Reading the answer qualifications it says countries that are not in Asia. Hello. Russia is in Asia.
+4
Level 43
Jun 10, 2021
It's partly in Europe and partly in Asia
+1
Level 40
Apr 3, 2022
yes but it is mostly in asia. but russias european side is more populous.
+3
Level 60
Sep 23, 2021
Read the first caveat
+1
Level 30
Feb 18, 2022
almost forgot uk but got it when i guessed ukraine only missed uganda
+2
Level 41
Feb 22, 2023
If Russia is included then so should Turkey be.
+2
Level 65
Feb 22, 2023
Only the european part is counted, so for Russia it's everything west of the Urals (which happen to hold most of their population), for Turkey it's west of the Bosphorus so mainly half of Istanbul
+1
Level 68
Feb 22, 2023
Contraception should be first on the list of things supplied by the WHO and UN.

It's mind-blowing to look at this list, and think of how few of these locations have made the largest advancements for humanity.