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50 free United Kingdom trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
The United Kingdom is one country made of four, with three legal systems, two dominant parties, one uncodified constitution and a flag that forgot Wales. It is the place where football, rugby, golf and darts were codified, where the world's oldest broadcaster still runs on a licence fee, and where the Prime Meridian was pinned to a hill in Greenwich. This quiz covers the shape of the place and how it came to be: the Acts of Union of 1707 and 1801, the capitals of the four nations, Ben Nevis and Scafell Pike, the Channel Tunnel, the Crown Dependencies that are not actually in the UK, and the long arc from Roman conquest to empire to Brexit. It also dips into culture — the Beatles, Shakespeare, the NHS, afternoon tea and the M25. Fifty questions from easy to hard, each sourced and each explanation adding one extra detail for the next pub quiz.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01How many countries make up the United Kingdom?
Four
England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland; the Prime Minister's website has called it "countries within a country".
Q 02Which country shares the UK's only land border?
Republic of Ireland
Northern Ireland's boundary with the Republic runs 310 miles; the UK is otherwise surrounded by sea.
Q 03What is the capital of Scotland?
Edinburgh
Cardiff and Belfast are the capitals of Wales and Northern Ireland; London serves both England and the UK.
Q 04What is the capital of Wales?
Cardiff
Cardiff, Swansea and Newport are each unitary authorities in their own right among the 22 in Wales.
Q 05In which year did England and Scotland unite to form the Kingdom of Great Britain?
1707
The Acts of Union declared them "United into One Kingdom by the Name of Great Britain" on 1 May 1707.
Q 06The Acts of Union 1800 added which kingdom to create the United Kingdom in 1801?
Ireland
Most of Ireland left in 1922 as the Irish Free State; the name changed to add "Northern Ireland" in 1927.
Q 07In which year did the Roman conquest of Britain begin?
AD 43
Roman rule of southern Britain lasted about 400 years before Anglo-Saxon settlement began around 450.
Q 08Who is considered the UK's de facto first prime minister, from 1721 to 1742?
Robert Walpole
Cabinet government developed under him; nearly every PM since has also held the title First Lord of the Treasury.
Q 09In which year did Parliament ban slavery throughout the British Empire?
1833
The slave trade itself had been banned in 1807; Britain then used naval blockades and treaties to push abolition worldwide.
Q 10At its 1920s peak, the British Empire covered roughly what share of the world's land?
A quarter
It was the largest empire in history, with about a quarter of the world's population too.
Q 11The period of British naval dominance from 1815 to 1914 is known by what Latin name?
Pax Britannica
London was the world's largest city from about 1830 and the world's principal financial centre.
Q 12Which 1940 air campaign saw the RAF repel the Luftwaffe over British skies?
Battle of Britain
Heavy bombing of cities followed in the Blitz; the Grand Alliance with the US and USSR formed in 1941.
Q 13In what year was the National Health Service founded?
1948
Created under Clement Attlee's Labour government, it has been described as Britain's "national religion".
Q 21What is the highest point in the British Isles?
Ben Nevis
At 1,345 metres it tops Snowdon (1,085 m), Scafell Pike (978 m) and Slieve Donard (852 m).
Q 22What is England's highest mountain?
Scafell Pike
It rises 978 metres in the Lake District; England's largest island is the Isle of Wight.
Q 23Snowdon, the highest peak in Wales, is known by what Welsh name?
Yr Wyddfa
It stands 1,085 metres tall in Snowdonia; Wales has over 1,680 miles of coastline.
Q 24What is the largest lake in the British Isles by area?
Q 14The UK's first atomic bomb test in 1952 was code-named what?
Operation Hurricane
It made the UK the third nuclear-armed state; the Suez Crisis four years later showed the limits of its power.
Q 15In 1969 the UK became the first democracy to lower its voting age to what?
18
The 1928 Equal Franchise Act had earlier given women electoral equality with men.
Q 16What share of UK voters chose to leave the European Union in 2016?
51.9 per cent
The UK left in 2020; a 1975 referendum had seen 67 per cent vote to stay in the European Communities.
Q 17In the 2014 independence referendum, what share of Scots voted to stay in the UK?
55.3 per cent
The result was 55.3 to 44.7; the Brexit vote two years later reopened the question.
Q 18Which 1998 accord is usually taken to mark the end of the Troubles?
Good Friday Agreement
Also called the Belfast Agreement, it followed decades of communal and paramilitary violence from the late 1960s.
Q 19Which country invaded the Falkland Islands in 1982, starting a 10-week war?
Argentina
Islanders reaffirmed their preference for British sovereignty in a 2013 referendum.
Q 20Which three island polities are Crown Dependencies rather than part of the UK?
Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey
They are in union with the British monarch, and the UK government handles their external affairs.
Lough Neagh
It covers 150 square miles in Northern Ireland, which also has the Giant's Causeway World Heritage Site.
Q 25Roughly how close does the UK's southeast coast come to northern France?
22 miles
The English Channel separates them; the Channel Tunnel runs 31 miles, 24 of them underwater.
Q 26Which train runs directly from London to Paris through the Channel Tunnel?
Eurostar
LeShuttle carries cars through the same tunnel, the world's longest undersea tunnel at 23.5 miles.
Q 27Which London site was chosen in 1884 as the defining point of the Prime Meridian?
Royal Greenwich Observatory
The International Meridian Conference fixed zero longitude there; the UK lies between 9° W and 2° E.
Q 28About how many islands does Scotland have?
Nearly 800
They include the Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland; Scotland is the most mountainous part of the UK.
Q 29How many constituencies elect members to the House of Commons?
650
Each returns one MP by first-past-the-post for a term of up to five years.
Q 30The UK's constitution is unusual among major states in being what?
Uncodified
It consists of statutes, case law, treaties and conventions, underpinned by parliamentary sovereignty.