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60 free Uruguay trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Uruguay trivia quiz covers the small country wedged between its two giant neighbours: its geography (the Río de la Plata, Cerro Catedral, the resort beaches of Punta del Este), its history (Artigas and the Thirty-Three Orientals, the Guerra Grande, the Graf Spee, the dictatorship and the return to democracy) and its culture, from mate and chivitos to candombe, tango and the writer Eduardo Galeano. Football gets its due, because Uruguay has by far the smallest population of any World Cup winner: the 1930 tournament it hosted and won, the Maracanazo of 1950, the Olympic golds of the 1920s, Forlán, Suárez and the Clásico. There are also questions on the 1972 Andes crash, the president who drove a 1987 Beetle, and the country that legalised cannabis before anyone else. Questions run from easy to expert with the difficulty shown on each one. Every answer has been checked against a primary reference and each question carries its citation.
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Q 01Uruguay's official name is the 'Oriental Republic of Uruguay'. Why 'Oriental'?
It lies east of the river it is called after
'República Oriental del Uruguay' literally means 'Republic East of the Uruguay River'; in colonial times the land was simply the Banda Oriental, the eastern bank.
Q 02Which two countries share a land border with Uruguay?
Argentina and Brazil
Its whole history has been shaped by sitting between the two South American giants; the fourth side of the country is the Río de la Plata and the Atlantic.
Q 03Roughly what share of Uruguay's population lives in the metropolitan area of the capital?
More than half
Around 1.9 million people live in and around the capital; the rest of the urban population is spread across only about 30 towns.
Q 04Uruguay is the second-smallest sovereign nation in South America. Which country is the smallest?
Suriname
Uruguay covers about 176,000 square kilometres; only French Guiana, an overseas region of France, is smaller on the continent than these two.
Q 05Cerro Catedral, the highest point in famously flat Uruguay, rises to roughly what elevation?
514 m
It sits in the Sierra Carapé range; the country is mostly rolling plains and low ridges called cuchillas, with 660 km of coastline.
Q 06In December 2013 Uruguay became the first country in the world to fully legalise what?
Cannabis
The Senate passed the law 16 votes to 13, covering growth, use and sale; abortion had been legalised the year before and same-sex marriage the same year.
Q 07Which Uruguayan president (2010–2015) was nicknamed 'the world's poorest president'?
José Mujica
He gave away around 90 percent of his roughly US$12,000 monthly salary and declined to live in the presidential palace, staying on his flower farm outside the capital.
Q 08What car did 'the world's poorest president' famously drive instead of an official limousine?
A 1987 Volkswagen Beetle
He also kept a 60-year-old bicycle, and reportedly turned down a seven-figure offer from an Arab sheikh for the Beetle.
Q 09Which Marxist urban guerrilla group in 1960s-70s Uruguay counted a future president among its members?
Tupamaros
The group's bank robberies and kidnappings helped trigger the 1973 coup; the future president spent almost 15 years in prison under the military regime that followed.
Q 10Uruguay hosted and won the very first FIFA World Cup. In which year?
1930
Every match was played in the capital, most of them in the purpose-built Estadio Centenario, which will also host the opening match of the 2030 centenary tournament.
Q 11Who did Uruguay beat 4–2 in the first World Cup final?
Argentina
The two neighbours already had a fierce rivalry, the Clásico del Río de la Plata; 68,346 people watched the final in Montevideo.
Q 12Uruguay's 2–1 win over the hosts in the deciding match of the 1950 World Cup is remembered by what name?
The Maracanazo
Brazil only needed a draw in front of a home crowd of roughly 200,000; the defeat is still treated as a national trauma there.
Q 13What is the nickname of Uruguay's national football team?
La Celeste
It means 'the Sky Blue', from the shirt first worn in a 3–1 win over the neighbours across the River Plate in 1910.
Q 21Which two Andes crash survivors trekked for ten days across the mountains to find help?
Nando Parrado and Roberto Canessa
A third man, Vizintín, turned back after three days so the food would last; the pair eventually reached a Chilean herdsman across a river.
Q 22Which 2023 Spanish-language film retold the story of the Andes flight disaster?
Society of the Snow
J. A. Bayona's film was Spain's Oscar entry; the 1993 Hollywood version starred Ethan Hawke.
Q 23Which hero launched Uruguay's 1811 revolt against Spanish rule and won at Las Piedras?
José Gervasio Artigas
Q 14Before the World Cup existed, Uruguay won Olympic football gold twice. In which years?
1924 and 1928
FIFA organised both tournaments as open events including professionals, which is why Uruguay counts four world titles and wears four stars on its shirt.
Q 15Which Uruguayan was awarded the Golden Ball as best player of the 2010 World Cup?
Diego Forlán
Uruguay reached its first semi-final in 40 years that summer in South Africa, finishing fourth.
Q 16Which Italian defender did Luis Suárez bite at the 2014 World Cup?
Giorgio Chiellini
It was the third biting incident of his career; FIFA banned him from all football for four months and he missed the start of his first Barcelona season.
Q 17Which country did Luis Suárez's deliberate goal-line handball knock out of the 2010 World Cup?
Ghana
He was sent off, Asamoah Gyan missed the resulting penalty, and Uruguay won the shoot-out to reach the semi-finals.
Q 18Which two Montevideo clubs contest the Uruguayan Clásico?
Nacional and Peñarol
Both clubs have won the Intercontinental Cup three times, an extraordinary haul for a country this small.
Q 19The 1972 Andes crash of Flight 571 carried an amateur club team in which sport?
Rugby
The Old Christians Club side was flying to a match in Chile with family and friends; only seven of the 19 players on board came home.
Q 20For how many days were the survivors of the 1972 Andes crash stranded on the mountain?
72
An avalanche 16 days in killed eight more people inside the fuselage; the search had been called off after eight days.
He then broke with Buenos Aires over federalism and organised a Federal League of six provinces, five of which ended up on the other side of the river.
Q 24Uruguay's national hero, leader of the 1811 revolt, spent his last three decades exiled in which country?
Paraguay
Driven out after the Portuguese invasion of 1816–20, he died there in 1850 and his remains were only repatriated years later.
Q 25The group that declared Uruguay's independence from Brazil on 25 August 1825 is known by what name?
The Thirty-Three Orientals
Led by Juan Antonio Lavalleja, their landing set off the 500-day Cisplatine War; 25 August is still Independence Day.
Q 26Which outside power's diplomacy produced the 1828 treaty creating Uruguay as a buffer state?
Great Britain
Neither Brazil nor the United Provinces could win the Cisplatine War, and London, keen to keep the River Plate open to trade, sent Viscount Ponsonby to broker the deal.
Q 27Uruguay's two 'Traditional Parties' are the Colorados and which other?
The Blancos
The Blancos and Colorados fought several 19th-century civil wars, and their colours came from the hatbands worn by rival armies.
Q 28Uruguay's early welfare state earned it the nickname 'the ___ of the Americas'. Which country?
Switzerland
The reforms came under President José Batlle y Ordóñez, and Uruguay's constitution even borrowed the Swiss idea of citizen-initiated referendums.
Q 29Which German warship took refuge in Montevideo after fighting British cruisers in 1939?
Admiral Graf Spee
Uruguay had declared neutrality; the ship claimed sanctuary in a neutral port but was ordered to leave within days.
Q 30What happened to the German warship that sheltered in Montevideo after the Battle of the River Plate?
Its captain scuttled it in the estuary
Captain Langsdorff believed a much larger British force was waiting outside; the decision infuriated Hitler and Langsdorff shot himself days later.