What’s on the country wheel
The full wheel holds the 193 member states of the United Nations, in alphabetical order. With that many slices the labels are tiny, but the result card shows the country in large text. Each country has a 1 in 193 (about 0.5%) chance.
Continent presets make the wheel easier to read and more useful in class. Countries that span two continents are listed once: Turkey, Cyprus, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan under Asia, and Russia under Europe.
| Preset | Countries |
|---|---|
| Africa | 54 |
| Asia | 47 |
| Europe | 43 |
| North America | 23 |
| South America | 12 |
| Oceania | 14 |
Games and lessons with a random country
- Flag quiz: spin and the first person to draw or name the flag scores a point.
- Capital city race: name the capital before the next spin. Use elimination mode so countries don’t repeat.
- Geography hunt: find the spun country on a map or globe, with a timer.
- Cook-off or movie night: spin a country and make a dish or watch a film from it.
- Travel dreaming: spin for your next trip, or the next country your class researches.
- World Cup sweepstakes: load only the qualified teams by typing them in, and spin one per player.
Make your own list
Use Edit as text to paste any country list: the countries you’ve visited, a tournament’s teams, or the countries in this week’s lesson. To spin for letters or numbers instead, see the letter spinner.
Which places are not on the default list
The wheel follows United Nations membership, so it has 193 countries. Places that are often counted as countries but aren’t UN members, such as Vatican City and Palestine (UN observer states), Kosovo and Taiwan, aren’t on it by default. Neither are territories like Greenland, Puerto Rico or Hong Kong.
To include any of them, choose Edit as text and add a line. The list is yours to change, and it stays saved in your browser.
Make a tournament or travel wheel
- Press Clear all, then Edit as text.
- Paste the countries you need, one per line: the teams in a tournament group, the countries in this term’s syllabus, or your travel wish list.
- Give it a title in Options, such as “World Cup sweepstake”, so screenshots of the result make sense.
- Turn on elimination if each country should only be drawn once, which is how most sweepstakes work.
Quick facts the wheel can teach
- Africa has the most UN member states: 54, more than a quarter of the whole wheel.
- South America has the fewest on this wheel: 12.
- Russia and Turkey span two continents. Here Russia is listed under Europe and Turkey under Asia, so each appears once.
- Spin the full wheel ten times and you’ll usually land in Africa or Asia most often, because together they hold 101 of the 193 slices.
Questions people ask
How many countries are on the wheel?
All 193 United Nations member states, or 12 to 54 when you choose one continent.
Can I spin for a country from one continent only?
Yes. Click Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, South America or Oceania above the list to load just that continent.
Can I stop the same country coming up twice?
Yes. Switch the wheel to elimination in Options and each country drops off once it has been picked, which suits sweepstakes and quiz rounds.
Why isn’t Taiwan, Kosovo or Vatican City on the wheel?
The default list is the 193 UN member states. You can add any other country or territory with Edit as text.
Which continent has the most countries?
Africa, with 54 UN member states. Asia follows with 47 on this wheel.
Updated by the SpinnWheel team