Fascinating Facts About Every Single Country on Earth

The United Nations recognizes 193 countries plus two observer states, Palestine and the Vatican (Holy See). Besides big players like the United States, Indonesia, Pakistan, China, Mexico and Brazil, most of these countries have fewer than 50 million residents and might be difficult for people to find on a map. 

So to make the world a bit more accessible and fun, we set out to find one no-way-it’s-true, fascinating fact about all 195 of these countries/observer states, ranked by population.

The population of the world passed 8 billion people in November 2022. Get ready to learn something.

Population: 1.43 billion

There are 63 million pairs of chopsticks — or 126 million single sticks — manufactured in China every year. These range from mass-produced disposable chopsticks to high-quality sticks that can take up to (yes) a month to painstakingly make.

* Population stats were sourced from Worldometer.

Population: 1.37 billion

India gave the world its sweet tooth. Although sugarcane originated in Southeast Asia, it was first chemically refined about 2,500 years ago in India. Thanks, India.

Population: 329.1 million

The stars and stripes make up one of the most recognizable flags of any country in the world. But did you know the modern iteration containing 50 stars was designed for a class project by an enterprising high school student in 1958? The teenager actually anticipated the addition of Alaska and Hawaii a year later?

Amazingly, the boy’s unimpressed teacher gave him a B-.

Population: 270.6 million

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). Indonesia attempted to count them all in 2017, but several differing figures still exist.