Countries and territories of Europe
Every country and territory, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, with flags, maps, facts and a narrated adventure.
44 to explore
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Country Albania Albania is a small, mountainous country on the Balkan Peninsula, facing Italy across the Adriatic Sea. About three-fourths of it is mountains and hills, the coastal plains are its most crowded part, and its language has no close relatives.
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Country Andorra Andorra is a tiny country high in the Pyrenees mountains, between France and Spain. It is made of steep mountain valleys, its official language is Catalan, and about 89,750 people lived there in 2026.
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Country Austria Austria is a landlocked country in central Europe. The Alps cover much of it, the Danube River flows across the north, and about 9.2 million people live there. Its capital, Vienna, is famous for its music and palaces.
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Country Belarus Belarus is a landlocked country in eastern Europe. Ice sheets of the last ice age shaped its low hills and wide plains, it has more than 10,000 lakes and one of Europe's largest wetlands, and about 9.1 million people lived there in 2025.
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Country Belgium Belgium is a small, busy country in northwestern Europe, low and flat near the North Sea and hilly in the forested Ardennes. About 11.9 million people live there, speaking mainly Dutch in the north and French in the south, and its capital, Brussels, hosts the European Union.
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Country Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina is a mountainous country in southeastern Europe. It has forests, limestone hills and many rivers, and famous old stone bridges cross some of them. Its capital is Sarajevo. It touches the Adriatic Sea along only about 20 kilometers of coast.
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Country Bulgaria Bulgaria is a country on the eastern side of the Balkan Peninsula, with the Danube River to the north and the Black Sea to the east. Mountains cross it from west to east, and about 6.4 million people lived there at the end of 2025.
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Country Croatia Croatia is a crescent-shaped country in southeastern Europe. Its long coast on the Adriatic Sea is fringed by more than 1,100 islands, limestone mountains rise behind it, fertile plains lie in the north, and about 3.87 million people lived there in mid-2025.
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Country Czechia Czechia, also called the Czech Republic, is a landlocked country in central Europe. Mountains ring the old land of Bohemia, the Vltava River flows through the capital, Prague, and about 10.9 million people lived there in 2026.
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Country Denmark Denmark is a country in northern Europe made of the Jutland peninsula and more than 400 islands, with the sea almost all around. It is low and mostly flat, about 6 million people live there, and its capital, Copenhagen, is full of bicycles.
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Country Estonia Estonia is the northernmost of the three Baltic states in northeastern Europe. Its low land of forests, bogs and lakes was shaped by ice, it has about 1,500 islands and islets, and about 1.36 million people lived there at the start of 2026.
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Country Finland Finland is a northern European country covered mostly by forest and dotted with tens of thousands of lakes. About a third of it lies north of the Arctic Circle, where the summer sun shines all night. About 5.7 million people live there, most of them in the south.
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Country France France is a country in northwestern Europe, between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. It has high mountains such as the Alps and the Pyrenees, long rivers such as the Loire and the Seine, and about 69.1 million people (2026). Its capital is Paris.
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Country Germany Germany is a country in north-central Europe. The land rises from flat plains by the North Sea and the Baltic Sea to forested hills and, in the far south, the Alps. About 83.5 million people (2025) live there, and its capital is Berlin.
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Country Greece Greece is a country in southern Europe, at the bottom of the Balkan Peninsula, with sea on three sides and more than 2,000 islands. Most of it is mountains. About 10.4 million people lived there at the start of 2025, and its capital is Athens, a city with ruins more than 2,400 years old.
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Country Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in central Europe, in a wide lowland called the Carpathian Basin. Wide plains cover much of it, the Danube River flows through its capital, Budapest, and about 9.5 million people lived there in 2026.
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Country Iceland Iceland is an island country in the North Atlantic, close to the Arctic Circle. It sits on the border between two giant plates of Earth's crust and has about 200 volcanoes, many hot springs and huge glaciers, and about 396,500 people lived there in mid-2026.
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Country Ireland Ireland is a country on an island in the Atlantic Ocean, west of Great Britain. It covers most of the island, while Northern Ireland, in the northeast, is part of the United Kingdom. Rain keeps its fields green, its capital is Dublin, and more than 5.5 million people live there.
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Country Italy Italy is a country in southern Europe on a long peninsula that reaches into the Mediterranean Sea, often described as shaped like a boot. The Alps rise in the north, the Apennine mountains run down its length, and about 58.9 million people (2026) live there. Its capital is Rome.
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Country Latvia Latvia is the middle one of the three Baltic states, on the shores of the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Riga. It is mostly low and green, with forests over more than half its land, and about 1.845 million people lived there at the start of 2026.
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Country Liechtenstein Liechtenstein is one of the smallest countries in Europe, tucked between Switzerland and Austria. Its west is the flat valley of the Rhine River, and its east is steep Alpine mountains. About 41,000 people live there, and its head of state is a prince.
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Country Lithuania Lithuania is the largest and southernmost of the three Baltic states. Its low land was shaped by glaciers and holds about 3,000 lakes, a long spit of sand dunes lines its coast, and about 2.89 million people lived there in 2025.
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Country Luxembourg Luxembourg is one of the smallest countries in the world, tucked between Belgium, France and Germany. It has forested hills in the north, farms and vineyards in the south, a capital built on a steep rocky outcrop, and about 691,000 people (2026) who use Luxembourgish, French and German.
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Country Malta Malta is a small island country in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, south of Sicily. Its islands are made of limestone, its capital Valletta was built by the Knights of St John in the 1500s, and about 588,000 people lived there at the end of 2025.
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Country Moldova Moldova is a small landlocked country in eastern Europe, squeezed between Romania and Ukraine. Most of it lies between two rivers, the Prut and the Dniester, and its rich black soil grows grapes, sunflowers, grain and fruit. About 2.4 million people were counted there in 2024.
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Country Monaco Monaco is a very small country on the Mediterranean coast, with France all around it on land. It covers just over 2 square kilometers, about 38,900 people lived there at the end of 2025, and it has been ruled by princes of the Grimaldi family since 1297.
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Country Montenegro Montenegro is a small country in the Balkans, on the Adriatic Sea. High, rocky mountains rise right behind its narrow coast, the Tara River has cut Europe's deepest gorge, and about 624,000 people lived there at the 2023 census.
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Country Netherlands The Netherlands is a small, flat country in northwestern Europe on the North Sea. Its name means low-lying country: more than a quarter of it lies below sea level, protected by dunes and dikes. About 18.2 million people lived there in 2026, and its capital is Amsterdam, a city of canals.
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Country North Macedonia North Macedonia is a small, landlocked country in the Balkans of southeastern Europe. It is mostly mountains, the Vardar River runs through its middle, Lake Ohrid has existed for millions of years, and about 1.8 million people lived there in 2023.
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Country Norway Norway stretches along the western side of the Scandinavian Peninsula, far into the Arctic. Deep, narrow inlets of the sea called fjords cut into its mountains, and about 5.6 million people live there, many of them near Oslo, the capital.
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Country Poland Poland lies near the center of Europe, between the Baltic Sea and the Carpathian Mountains. Most of it is low, flat land shaped by Ice Age glaciers, and about 37 million people live there. Its capital, Warsaw, stands on the Vistula River.
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Country Portugal Portugal is a country on the Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula in southwestern Europe, with Spain as its only land neighbor. It also includes the Azores and Madeira islands far out in the ocean. About 11.4 million people lived there at the start of 2026, and its capital is Lisbon, on the Tagus River.
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Country Romania Romania is a country in southeastern Europe. The Carpathian Mountains curve around its middle, the Danube River runs along its southern edge to a huge delta on the Black Sea, and about 19 million people lived there at the start of 2026.
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Country Russia Russia is the largest country in the world. It stretches across eastern Europe and all of northern Asia, through 11 time zones, from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean. It has frozen tundra, huge forests, Lake Baikal and the big cities of Moscow and Saint Petersburg.
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Country San Marino San Marino is a very small country on the slopes of Mount Titano, completely surrounded by Italy. It is one of the oldest republics in the world, and its capital, with walls and fortress towers, sits high on the mountain. About 34,000 people live there.
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Country Serbia Serbia is a landlocked country in the Balkans. Its north is flat farmland, its middle is wooded hills, and its edges have mountains, while the Danube River cuts a deep gorge called the Iron Gate. About 6.5 million people lived there in 2025.
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Country Slovakia Slovakia is a landlocked country in central Europe. The Carpathian Mountains cover much of it, with the High Tatras in the north, and about 5.4 million people lived there at the end of 2025. Its capital, Bratislava, sits on the Danube River.
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Country Slovenia Slovenia is a small country in central Europe where the Alps meet the Mediterranean. Forests cover much of the land, the Karst region is full of caves and underground rivers, and about 2.1 million people lived there in 2026.
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Country Spain Spain covers most of the Iberian Peninsula in southwestern Europe. Its middle is a high, flat plateau, the Pyrenees mountains stand between it and France, and almost 50 million people live there, with Madrid as the capital.
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Country Sweden Sweden is a country in northern Europe on the Scandinavian Peninsula. It stretches about 1,600 kilometers from north to south, with forests, many lakes and a rocky coast full of islands. About 10.6 million people live there, and its capital is Stockholm.
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Country Switzerland Switzerland is a small, landlocked country in central Europe. The Alps cover its south and east, great rivers such as the Rhine and Rhône begin there, and its 9.1 million people share four national languages: German, French, Italian and Romansh.
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Country Ukraine Ukraine is a large country in eastern Europe on the northern shore of the Black Sea. Most of it is level plain with some of the most fertile soil in the world, crossed by the Dnieper River. Its capital is Kyiv, and its official language is Ukrainian.
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Country United Kingdom The United Kingdom, or UK, lies on islands off the northwest coast of Europe. It is made up of four parts, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and about 69.5 million people live there. Its capital is London.
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Country Vatican City Vatican City is the smallest independent country in the world, just 0.44 square kilometers in the middle of Rome, Italy. It is the home of the Pope, who leads the Catholic Church, and it holds famous buildings and art such as St. Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel.