Antarctica — Geography & Quizzes

Antarctica at a glance

Antarctica is the only continent with no countries and no permanent population, which is why it has no flag or capital questions in our quizzes. It covers roughly 14 million square kilometres — larger than Europe or Australia — and almost all of it lies under an ice sheet that averages close to two kilometres thick. That ice holds about 90% of the ice on Earth and around 70% of the world's fresh water.

• Countries: none — governed by the Antarctic Treaty
• Area: about 14 million km², the fifth-largest continent
• Highest point: Vinson Massif, 4,892 m
• Coldest recorded temperature: −89.2 °C at Vostok Station (July 1983)
• People: a few thousand researchers in summer, around a thousand over winter

Who governs Antarctica?

The Antarctic Treaty, signed in 1959 by twelve nations and in force since 1961, sets the continent aside for peaceful scientific use. Military activity and mineral mining are banned, and today more than 50 countries are parties. Seven countries — Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, New Zealand, Norway and the United Kingdom — maintain territorial claims, several of which overlap, but the treaty freezes those claims rather than recognising them.

This is a favourite trick question in geography quizzes: Antarctica is a continent you must place on the map, yet it has no countries to name. When a quiz asks how many continents there are, the seven-continent model counts it; when it asks how many countries a continent contains, Antarctica is the one that answers zero.

Practise the polar regions

Antarctica shows up in continent-and-ocean questions more than anywhere else. Learn it alongside the Southern Ocean that surrounds it, then test yourself on the map.

• Continents and oceans quiz guide
• Click the country map game
• Continent guessing game