Facts about countries

This Southeast Asian country is the world’s largest island nation, but no one knows exactly how many islands it contains (thousands and thousands, to be imprecise).

There were some attempts to count them all in 2017, but several differing figures still exist.

• the Philippines

• Indonesia

• Thailand

• Vietnam

There’s a small city called Sialkot in this South Asian country that produces 40 percent of the world’s soccer balls.

• Bhutan

• Pakistan

• India

• Bangladesh

The Yoruba people in the southwest part of this African nation are known for giving birth to more twins than anywhere else in the world, at a rate of 50 per 1,000 births.

• Nigeria

• Sudan

• Morocco

• Egypt

Belgium colonized this African country from 1908 to 1960, and one of the leftovers from this period is an obsession with mayonnaise. They apparently put it on everything here.

• Algeria

• Tanzania

• Ethiopia

• Congo

Everyone who lives in this European country can attend college tuition-free. 

• France

• Belgium

• Germany

• Denmark

There’s an annual festival in this Southeast Asian nation that pays homage to its monkeys. During the Monkey Buffet Festival, residents provide 4.5 tons of fruit, veggies and candies to over 3,000 monkeys. 

• Laos

• Malaysia

• Thailand

• Brunei

This European nation is the most visited country in the world with 89 million annual tourists.

• France

• Sweden

• Croatia

• The Netherlands

Kimchi and rice are the two most important foodstuffs of this East Asian nation, and there is a common saying that “if you have kimchi and rice then you have a meal.”

This reliance on kimchi and rice dates back up to 3,000 years. 

• South Korea

• China

• Japan

• Taiwan

This Asian nation has no independence day because, unlike most countries around the world, it was never fully occupied. It ceded 30 percent of its land to Britain following the war in 1814-16, but the Brits were never able to conquer it all due to the country’s treacherous terrain. 

• Sri Lanka

• Vietnam

• Singapore

• Nepal

Often called “Africa in miniature,” this country touts 1,738 different linguistic groups and more than 200 national languages. 

• Cameroon

• Ghana

• Gabon

• Senegal