Getting your questions ready
Getting your questions ready
Beat the crowd
10 questions No timer
60 free Ivory Coast trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Ivory Coast trivia quiz covers Côte d'Ivoire from top to bottom: the Portuguese traders who named the coast, the Kong Empire and the Baoulé kingdoms, French rule from Grand-Bassam, Félix Houphouët-Boigny's thirty-three years and his 'Ivorian miracle', the two civil wars, and the country's grip on the world cocoa market. There is plenty of culture too: the basilica bigger than St Peter's, attiéké and alloco, zouglou and coupé-décalé, Alpha Blondy, and the Elephants of Drogba and Yaya Touré. The opening questions suit anyone who has watched a World Cup; the later ones test people who know why the flag is orange and where the country's highest peak is. Every question is multiple choice with a short explanation after you answer. Every answer has been checked against a primary source, and each question links to the page that confirms it.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the official political capital of Ivory Coast?
Yamoussoukro
It has been the legal capital since 1983, though the old capital keeps most political functions and nearly every embassy.
Q 02Which port city is Ivory Coast's largest city and economic centre?
Abidjan
With 6.3 million people it is the sixth most populous city proper in Africa and the largest French-speaking city in West Africa.
Q 03Ivory Coast is the world's largest exporter of which commodity?
Cocoa beans
The country produced 45% of the world's crop as of 2024, and it also became Africa's leading exporter of pineapples and palm oil.
Q 04Roughly what share of the world's cocoa did Ivory Coast produce as of 2024?
45%
West Africa collectively supplies two-thirds of the world's crop, and the bean makes up 40% of Ivorian export income.
Q 05Ivory Coast overtook which neighbour as the world's leading cocoa producer in 1978?
Ghana
Indonesia later became the biggest producer outside West Africa, pushing that neighbour into third place.
Q 06Portuguese merchants named West Africa's shores after their main trade; what did they call Liberia?
Pepper Coast
Also known as the Grain Coast; the Gold Coast was Ghana, and Togo, Benin and Nigeria made up the Slave Coast.
Q 07In which year did the Ivorian government declare Côte d'Ivoire its only official name, refusing translations?
1986
FIFA, the IOC and the CIA World Factbook comply; the BBC, The Economist and the New York Times still say Ivory Coast.
Q 08Who was the first president of Ivory Coast, ruling from independence in 1960 until his death in 1993?
Félix Houphouët-Boigny
Known as Papa Houphouët or Le Vieux, he was a chief, medical aide, union leader and planter before entering the French Parliament in 1945.
Q 09Ivory Coast's first president held what distinction in France before independence?
African minister in a European government
He had founded the country's first union of African cocoa farmers in 1944 and was in the French Parliament within a year.
Q 10The 'Ivorian miracle' saw the economy grow at nearly what annual rate for 20 years after independence?
10%
It was the best of Africa's non-oil economies, and the French community doubled to 60,000 as expatriates poured in rather than out.
Q 11The Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in the Ivorian capital holds which record?
Largest church in the world
It overtook St Peter's on completion, though it seats only 18,000 to St Peter's 60,000.
Q 12Which pope consecrated the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in 1990?
John Paul II
He formally accepted the building as a gift to the Catholic Church from the Ivorian president; Polish Pallottines run it today.
Q 13The 90-metre dome of the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace is more than twice the diameter of which church's dome?
St Peter's in Rome
Q 21Who became president of Ivory Coast in 2010, having earlier worked as an IMF economist?
Alassane Ouattara
He earned a PhD in economics from the University of Pennsylvania and served as prime minister from 1990 to 1993.
Q 22Which former Ivorian president was the first former head of state taken into International Criminal Court custody?
Laurent Gbagbo
He was seized in a raid on his residence in April 2011 after refusing to concede the 2010 election, and was later acquitted.
Q 23Which president promoted 'Ivoirité' in the 1990s to exclude a rival with northern parents from the presidency?
Henri Konan Bédié
Lebanese architect Pierre Fakhoury deliberately kept the dome slightly lower than the Roman original but topped it with a bigger cross.
Q 14The Ivorian flag is a vertical tricolour of which colours, from hoist to fly?
Orange, white, green
It is Ireland's flag reversed; the French commissioner had suggested a red, white and blue design with stars.
Q 15The Ivorian flag closely resembles, in reverse, the flag of which European country?
Ireland
The vexillologist Whitney Smith argued the country shunned pan-African green, yellow and red because of its closeness to France.
Q 16The Ivory Coast national football team is nicknamed after which animal?
Elephants
They play in all orange and, since 2020, at a new national stadium named after the sitting president.
Q 17How many Africa Cup of Nations titles had Ivory Coast won after hosting the 2023 edition?
Three
The titles came in 1992, 2015 and 2023, the last as host nation.
Q 18Who is the all-time leading goalscorer for the Ivorian national team, with 65 goals?
Didier Drogba
The Chelsea striker was twice African Footballer of the Year and became the first African to score 100 Premier League goals.
Q 19After qualifying for the 2006 World Cup, Ivory Coast's captain made a televised plea that led to what?
A ceasefire in the civil war
The striker begged the combatants to lay down their arms after the win over Sudan; the fighting had lasted five years.
Q 20Ivory Coast has qualified for the men's FIFA World Cup how many times, counting 2026?
Four
The appearances were Germany 2006, South Africa 2010, Brazil 2014 and the 2026 tournament in North America.
With about 22% of the population originating from neighbouring countries, the policy strained ethnic relations and fed two civil wars.
Q 24During the 2002 uprising, rebel forces made their stronghold in which northern city?
Bouaké
It is the country's second-largest city; in 2004 an Ivorian airstrike there killed nine French soldiers.
Q 25How did France respond after nine of its soldiers were killed in an Ivorian airstrike in November 2004?
It wrecked most of the country's warplanes
Two Su-25 jets and five helicopters were wrecked, and anti-French riots followed in the largest city.
Q 26Which UNESCO-listed town was the French colonial capital of Ivory Coast in the 1890s?
Grand-Bassam
It is split by the Ébrié Lagoon into the old French settlement and the newer commercial town, and it houses the National Museum of Costume.
Q 27The Muslim Kong Empire in northern Ivory Coast was sacked in 1895 by which resistance leader?
Samori Ture
His Wassoulou Empire could manufacture and repair its own firearms; the French finally captured him in 1898.
Q 28Ivory Coast's Baoulé and Agni kingdoms were founded by Akan groups fleeing which Ghanaian power?
The Ashanti
As late as 1969 the Agni kingdom of Sanwi tried to break away and become independent.
Q 29Ivory Coast became a French colony in which year?
1893
It had been a protectorate since 1843, and pacification of the interior was not complete until 1915.
Q 30Roughly how many people lived in Ivory Coast in 2024?
31.5 million
That makes it the third-most populous country in West Africa; the first census in 1975 counted just 6.7 million.