All 11 countries that start with N
This list counts the 195 states the United Nations recognizes as members or observers, the same 195 the Geography app and its country quiz use, so the total here will never drift from the total anywhere else on this site. Territories, disputed states, and former names are not counted separately, and the count is generated directly from that dataset rather than typed by hand.
| Country | Capital | Continent | Context |
|---|---|---|---|
 Namibia | Windhoek | Africa | A southern African country home to the Namib, one of the world's oldest deserts. |
 Nauru | Yaren | Oceania | A tiny Pacific island nation, the world's smallest island country and the third smallest country overall. |
 Nepal | Kathmandu | Asia | A Himalayan country home to Mount Everest, the world's highest peak, on its border with China. |
 Netherlands | Amsterdam | Europe | A low lying European country where roughly a quarter of the land sits below sea level, held back by dikes. |
 New Zealand | Wellington | Oceania | A Pacific island nation southeast of Australia, one of the last major landmasses settled by people. |
 Nicaragua | Managua | North America | The largest country in Central America by area, home to Lake Nicaragua, the region's largest freshwater lake. |
 Niger | Niamey | Africa | A landlocked West African country, most of it Sahara desert, named for the Niger River crossing its southwest. |
 Nigeria | Abuja | Africa | Africa's most populous country, with over 200 million people. |
 North Korea | Pyongyang | Asia | Officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, divided from South Korea since 1948. |
 North Macedonia | Skopje | Europe | A landlocked Balkan country that added North to its name in 2019, settling a decades long dispute with Greece. |
 Norway | Oslo | Europe | A Scandinavian country with one of the world's longest coastlines, cut deeply by fjords. |
Where these eleven sit on the map
Europe and Africa each hold three of the eleven: Netherlands, North Macedonia, and Norway in Europe; Namibia, Niger, and Nigeria in Africa. Asia contributes Nepal and North Korea, two very different Asian states, and Oceania contributes Nauru and New Zealand, the smallest and one of the more remote countries in the Pacific respectively. Nicaragua, in Central America, is the letter's only entry from the Americas.
Nigeria dwarfs its letter mates by population, with more than 200 million people and the largest population of any African country, while Nauru, at roughly 21 square kilometers, is smaller than most airports. The Netherlands sits low against the sea by geography rather than by choice: roughly a quarter of the country lies below sea level, held back by a centuries old system of dikes, pumps, and polders that shaped Dutch engineering long before it shaped Dutch identity.
Naming edge cases worth knowing
North Korea appears here, but South Korea does not: its official name is the Republic of Korea, which alphabetizes under S rather than N, so the two halves of the divided peninsula sit on different letter pages in this dataset. North Macedonia added North to its name in February 2019 under the Prespa Agreement, settling a decades long dispute with Greece over the name Macedonia, which Greece also uses for one of its own northern regions; the country was known simply as Macedonia, and briefly by the placeholder FYROM, before that agreement. The Netherlands is sometimes called Holland, though Holland strictly names only two of its twelve provinces, and this dataset keeps Holland as an alias pointing to the same country.
Quick facts
- Eleven countries start with N, out of the 195 UN member and observer states.
- North Korea is here, but South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea, is filed under S.
- North Macedonia added North to its name in 2019 to settle a dispute with Greece.
- Nauru is the world's smallest island country, and Nigeria is Africa's most populous.