Rank It
Put ten countries in the categories where they rank highest.
What it is
Ten categories, ten countries. The countries arrive one at a time, and you put each one into the category where you think it ranks highest: is Brazil your pick for Highest forest cover, or should it go to Most Olympic medals won? Every category takes exactly one country and a placement is final, so you are always weighing the country in front of you against the ones still to come.
How to play
- A country appears with its flag. Tap or click a category to place it there, or drag the flag onto one. On a keyboard, the number keys 1 to 0 pick the ten categories.
- Once all ten are placed, press See my score.
- One by one, each category flips over to show where your country really ranks, its actual figure and a score out of 100, coloured from red to green. Your total counts up as they land, out of the best score these ten countries could possibly have made.
- Press Perfect ranking to flip the board to the best possible arrangement. Each row shows the country that belonged there, with a small flag of your own pick beside it, and a tick where you already had it right.
- Tap any category to see how all ten of the day's countries ranked in it.
Scoring
Ranks are among the 130 countries in the game, so number one is always reachable. A top 3 spot scores 100. After that the score falls gently, about 92 for 10th, 81 for 20th and 50 for 50th, down to 0 for last place. Countries that tie share their rank. The game also works out the best total these ten countries could have made, over every possible arrangement, and your score is shown out of that number, so a hard set is never unfair. The daily counts as a win at 75% of the best possible score.
The countries
Rank It uses 130 well-known countries: every country with more than about five million people, plus familiar smaller ones such as Iceland, Luxembourg, Malta, Qatar, Jamaica and the Baltic states. A country only ever appears in a game when all ten of that game's categories have a figure for it, so nothing is ever unranked.
The categories and where the numbers come from
Each game draws ten of the 26 categories below. Opposite pairs, such as the highest and lowest GDP per capita, or the highest and lowest average temperature, never appear together, and every game includes categories where poorer, younger or hotter countries come out on top, so every country has somewhere to shine. The figures are a snapshot of the latest published data.
- 👥 Largest population (people): UN World Population Prospects, 2024.
- 🗺️ Largest total area (km²): UN Statistics Division, total area.
- 🏙️ Highest population density (people per km²): Population divided by total area.
- 🏦 Highest GDP (total, US$): World Bank GDP, 2023 (US$).
- 💰 Highest GDP per capita (US$ per person): World Bank GDP per person, 2023.
- 🪙 Lowest GDP per capita (US$ per person): World Bank GDP per person, 2023.
- ⚖️ Least perceived corruption (CPI score, 0–100): Corruption Perceptions Index, 2025.
- 🕵️ Most perceived corruption (CPI score, 0–100): Corruption Perceptions Index, 2025.
- 😊 Happiest population (life satisfaction, 0–10): World Happiness Report, 2025.
- 🏅 Most Olympic medals won (all-time total): All-time Olympic medal table, Summer and Winter.
- 🏔️ Highest peak elevation (m above sea level): Highest point in each country.
- ⏳ Highest life expectancy (years at birth): Life expectancy, UN World Population Prospects (2023).
- 👵 Oldest population (median age, years): Median age, CIA World Factbook (2024).
- 🧒 Youngest population (median age, years): Median age, CIA World Factbook (2024).
- 👶 Highest fertility rate (children per woman): Births per woman, UN World Population Prospects 2024.
- 📏 Tallest population (average male height, cm): Average height of men, NCD-RisC.
- 🔥 Highest average temperature (yearly, °C): Average yearly temperature, 1991–2020 (World Bank).
- ❄️ Lowest average temperature (yearly, °C): Average yearly temperature, 1991–2020 (World Bank).
- 🌧️ Highest annual rainfall (mm per year): Average yearly rainfall (World Bank).
- 🌲 Highest forest cover (% of land area): Share of land covered by forest, FAO 2022.
- 🌊 Longest coastline (km): Coastline, CIA World Factbook.
- 🤝 Most bordering countries (by land): Countries sharing a land border.
- 🚨 Highest homicide rate (per 100,000 people): Homicides per 100,000 people, UNODC (latest year).
- 🏭 Highest CO₂ emissions per capita (tons per person): Global Carbon Project, 2024.
- ♻️ Most renewable electricity (% of total generation): Share of electricity from renewables (Ember).
- 🛢️ Most oil produced (% of world output): Share of world oil production (Energy Institute, 2024).
Tips
Don't spend a country on a category it only does fairly well in. Big all-rounders like the United States or China can rank high almost anywhere, so save them for the categories other countries can't fill, and use a tropical, young or small country for the categories that suit it. Remember too that many categories are per person: Qatar outranks China for CO₂ emissions per capita, and Singapore has the highest population density.