Hello and welcome a fun fact about every country in the world - part 1. These videos are going
to be pretty long so let’s get started right now.
Afghanistan changed its flag 18 times during the 20th century… and 4 more since then,
with its current flag having been in use since 2013. The reason for these changes isn’t
so fun though, so let’s just move on…
Albania has more than 173,000 concrete bunkers spread across its land; that’s nearly 15
bunkers per square mile, on average.
Algeria is the largest country in Africa, but only about 10% of the country is actually
inhabitable, with the rest being comprised of the Sahara Desert.
Andorra is the largest country in the world with no airport.
The capital city of Angola, Luanda, is considered to be the most expensive city in the world
for expats.
In 2009, Antigua and Barbuda re-named the country’s highest point “Mount Obama”
after US president Barack Obama, despite the fact that he’s never actually been there…
The name was changed back in 2016 to the original name of “Boggy Peak”.
During the December 2001 crisis, Argentina had 5 different presidents in just 2 weeks.
In Armenia, chess is part of a child’s primary school curriculum.
Australia has by far the most national parks of any country, with 685. For comparison,
2nd place Thailand has 147.
In Austria, there is a small village of about 100 people called 'F***ing'. They’ve had
issues with people stealing the sign…
As of the 1st of January 2021 this is no longer true. The town has changed its name
to “Fugging”. Which for some reason sounds even worse.
Baku, Azerbaijan is home to the world largest KFC, at 1,600 square metres.
The Bahamas has an island that is inhabited only by swimming pigs. The aptly named Pig
Beach has become a tourist attraction.
The recently deceased prime minister of Bahrain had been serving since 1970, and was the longest
serving PM of any government in the world. He passed away November 2020.
In December of 2004, Bangladesh broke a Guinness world record, forming the largest human chain.
With more than 5 million participants, the chain spanned the distance of the entire country
– more than 1,000 km long.
more than 5 million people and over 1,000 km long.
In 2008, the Prime Minister of Barbados created a new national holiday called "Rihanna Day",
to be celebrated on the 22nd of February.
In Belarus, there was a TV show called “The Theorists” which was just a blatant rip-off
of the US TV show “The Big Bang Theory”. However, there was nothing that Warner Brothers
could do about it because the TV company that produced the show is owned by the Belarusian
government.
In 2010–2011, Belgium went 589 days without a government. A world record at the time…
until it was broken in 2020… by Belgium. This time going 652 days without a government.
A construction company in Belize destroyed a 2,300 year-old Mayan pyramid to build a
new road in 2013.
The flag of the Kingdom of Benin features a person being decapitated with a sword.
Bhutan is the most mountainous country in the world – with 98.8% land area covered
in mountains. The average elevation of the country is 3,280m above sea-level.
Bolivia has a navy of about 5,000 personnel... despite being a landlocked country.
Bosnia and Herzegovina has an estimated 150 landmines per square kilometre.
In Botswana, there are parliamentary constituencies called 'Kanye North' and 'Kanye South'. There's
no Kanye West.
Brazil is believed to have the greatest biodiversity of any country on the planet. One paper estimates
up to 210,000 known species, and up to 2.4 million in total!
The Sultan of Brunei has an estimated net worth of $20 billion, and lives in the largest
residential palace in the world, valued at $350 million.
What is believed to be the oldest gold treasure in the world, dating back earlier than 4000
BC, was discovered at the Varna Necropolis in Bulgaria.
Burkina Faso’s name means “Land of Incorruptible People”, but in 2019 only scored 40/100
on Transparency International’s Corruption Index.
In 1996, Burundi became the poorest country to ever win a gold medal at the Olympic Games.
Achieved by Venuste Niyongabo in the 5000-meters.
In parts of Cambodia people have made their own improvised trains out of bamboo, known
as “Norries”, after regular services stopped running.
During the Great Depression in the United States, Cameroon raised money to help the
American people. They raised $3.77
Canada has more lakes than all other countries in the world combined.
Cape Verde ranks #1 among African nations for a wide variety of different criteria.
Barack Obama has referred to the country as “a real success story”.
The Central African Republic and Chad are the first consecutive countries alphabetically
that also border each other.
And speaking of Chad… Chad has the exact same flag as Romania.
And speak of chad, chad and romania both have the exact same flag
The largest permanent settlement on Antarctica is a Chilean town called Villa Las Estrellas.
Its population is about 150 during the summer, which drops to around 80 during the winter.
China has only one time zone despite being one of the largest countries in the world
which 'should' span 5 different time zones. The whole country follows Beijing time.
Colombia, spelled with two O’s and not a U, is by far the world's largest producer
of emeralds, making up 50 to 90 % of the world supply.
The name of Comoros derives from the Arabic word for “Moon”.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is home the world’s largest lava lake!
The two Congos have the closest capital cities of any two countries in the world.
In 1949, Costa Rica completely abolished its military. With a population of over 5 million,
it is by far the largest and most populous country without a military.
Footballer Didier Drogba brought an end to a 5-year civil war in his home country, Ivory
Coast.
Worn by millions on a daily basis, the necktie originates from Croatia.
Cuba is one of only two countries in the world in which Coca Cola is not sold… you can
probably guess the other one.
The capital city of Cyprus, Nicosia, has been described as the world’s last remaining
divided capital.
Czechia consumes more beer per capita than any other country – about 192 litres per
capita per annum. That’s nearly twice as much as Germany!
Denmark is apparently the least corrupt country in the world.
Djibouti gets its name from the country’s capital city, also called Djibouti, which
is home to more than 70% of the country’s population.
Dominica is the only national flag that features the colour purple.
The Dominican Republic is the most visited country in the Caribbean with more than 6.5
million annual visitors.
The word “Timor” derives from the Malay word for “East”. So the country’s name
is literally just “East East”.
The peak of the Ecuadorian mountain Chimborazo is the farthest point from the centre of the
Earth. It’s farther away than the peak of Mt Everest due to the slight equatorial bulge
of the Earth.
Of the 7 wonders of the ancient worlds, the Great Pyramid of Giza is by far the oldest,
and the only one that remains intact today.
El Salvador is the only North American country with no coastline on the Atlantic.
Despite its name, the equator does not actually pass through Equatorial Guinea.
Eritrea’s capital city, Asmara, has the nickname “New Rome” due to its architecture
being so similar to that of Italy. Eritrea was under Italian rule for more than 50 years.
Estonia was the first country in the world to adopt online voting – way back in 2005.
Now known as Eswatini, the country changed its name from Swaziland in 2018 to avoid confusion
with Switzerland.
Due to the Ethiopian Calendar, which has 13 months (12 months of exactly 30 days plus
a 13th month with 5 or 6 days), it is currently the start of 2013 in Ethiopia.
The company Fiji Water ran a joke advert saying "The label says Fiji because it's not bottled
in Cleveland". Taking offense to this, Cleveland did some tests that showed their tap water
is actually purer than Fiji’s.
Finland has an annual “Beer Floating” event in Helsinki, in which participants float
down the river drinking beer.
France is the most visited country in the world, with more than 89 million annual tourists.
Well... normally, anway. Certainly not in 2020.
Gabon has the world’s only natural nuclear fission reactor.
The Gambia has got to be one of the strangest shaped countries in the world. Its borders
closely follow the meandering river Gambia, and is completely surrounded by Senegal.
The Veryovkina cave in Georgia, is the deepest cave in the world with a known depth of 2,212
m and total length of 13.5 km
The old East-West division of Berlin can be seen to this day from space by a difference
in street lighting.
Kevin-Prince Boateng and Jerome Boateng became the first brothers to play against one another
in the FIFA World Cup in the Ghana vs. Germany match in South Africa, 2010.osta rica
The first Olympic Games took place in Olympia, Greece in 776 BC!
Grenada has an underwater sculpture park. With 75 in total, the sculptures can only
be seen by snorkeling or scuba diving.
The entire city of Antigua, former capital of Guatemala, is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Guinea pigs originate from the Andes mountain region of South America... not Guinea. The
origin of the animal’s name is unknown.
People from Guinea-Bissau are referred to as Bissau-Guineans.
Despite being a South American country, Guyana is actually an English-speaking country, due
to being colonised by the British.
Haiti unknowingly had the exact same flag as Liechtenstein until 1936 when the two countries
met at the Olympics and the similarity was discovered.
Once a year in Yoro, Honduras it rains fishes. This is known as la lluvia de peces, and has
apparently been occurring for more than a century, with the reason still unknown.
In the 1940s, Hungary experienced the worst hyperinflation of all time. The exchange rate
to 1 US dollar went from 5 pengo to millions, billions, then trillions of pengo and beyond.
In 1946, the country printed a 100 quintillion pengo banknote, the largest denomination bill
ever printed.
In the 2018 FIFA World Cup, Iceland became the least populous nation ever to qualify,
with a population of about 350,000.
India is the most vegetarian country in the world with 20–30% of the population refraining
from eating meat. India actually has more vegetarians than the rest of the world combined.
In Indonesia, a dead Manta Ray can be worth up to 500 US dollars... but it was calculated
that each Manta Ray throughout its lifetime is worth around $1,000,000 in tourism, and
therefore a ban on fishing them was introduced in 2014. Indonesia has now become the world's
largest sanctuary for manta rays.
There was a world-record attempt in Iran to make the world's longest sandwich, but people
started eating the sandwich before it could be measured by the officials of the Guinness
Book of World Records.
The earliest known usage of the wheel possibly dates back 5,500 years in Mesopotamia, modern-day
Iraq.
Ireland has won the Eurovision Song Contest more times than any other country - seven
times, including three consecutive wins in ‘92, ‘93, and ‘94.
Albert Einstein was offered the Israeli presidency, but he politely declined.
In 2004, two Lamborghini Gallardo supercars were donated to the Italian Police.
Jamaica is the ONLY country in the world whose flag does not feature red, white, or blue.
Japan has more than 80,000 people over the age of 100. That’s 1 in every 1500 people.
Constructed as early as perhaps 300 BC, Petra wasn’t discovered by the Western World until
the 19th century by a Swiss explorer.
In 2012, after the Kazakh shooting team won a gold medal in Kuwait, the event organisers
played the parody national anthem from the Sacha Baron Cohen film "Borat".
Kenyan athlete, Eliud Kipchoge, currently holds the marathon world record at a time
of 2:01:39 completed at the Berlin Marathon in 2018. The last 3 record holders were also
from Kenya, and also achieved at the Berlin Marathon.
Kiribati has the world's most advanced time zone: UTC+14, and is the reason for the oddly
shaped international date line.
Kim Il-sung is considered the “Eternal President” of North Korea. The presidency of the country
was abolished after his death. The present head of state is called the “Supreme Leader”.
The flag of South Korea has a lot of symbolism. The white represents peace and purity. The
red is positive, the blue negative, and the circle as a whole is balance in the universe.
The 4 trigrams are the 4 classic elements - heaven, water, fire, and earth.
The currency of Kuwait has the highest nominal value of any national currency in the world.
1 Kuwait Dinar is worth about 3 dollars 27 US.
Kyrgyzstan has some pretty weird borders with its neighbours Uzbekistan and Tajikistan,
with several exclaves of said neighbours enclaved within Kyrgy territory.
Laos is known as the “land of a million elephants”, but unfortunately there are
only an estimated 800 elephants left in the country.
Latvia’s independence day is May the Fourth – i.e. Star Wars day.
Beloved Canadian actor Keanu Reeves was actually born in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon.
Lesotho is the world's largest enclave. The country is entirely surrounded by South Africa.
Liberia was founded by freed American slaves, who chose to imitate the US flag and constitution.
Libya has only had one king in its history: Idris I, from 1951–1969. During this time,
the country was called the United Kingdom of Libya
The entire country of Liechtenstein can be rented for $70,000 per night.
According to a study by a French scientist in 1989, the geographical centre of Europe
(depending on how it’s measured) is located in Lithuania, 26 km north of Vilnius. There’s
a monument marking the location.
In 2020, Luxembourg became the first country in the world to make all public transport
free to use for everyone.
active in 2021.
Thank you so much for watching and I’ll see you in part 2!