Geography
🇹🇻 Tuvalu Quiz
A sinking nation of 11,000 people that struck gold with a two-letter domain.
A sinking nation of 11,000 people that struck gold with a two-letter domain.
Tuvalu earns roughly $5 million per year from licensing its .tv country-code domain — about 10% of government revenue — making two letters of the alphabet one of the tiny nation's biggest exports. That's just one of the surprising facts in this 50-question Tuvalu quiz. From the existential threat of rising sea levels to the Polynesian traditions that have survived for 3,000 years, Tuvalu packs an extraordinary story into just 26 square kilometres of land.
Each round presents 10 randomized multiple-choice questions drawn from a pool of 50, so every playthrough is different. You get instant feedback with explanations after each answer, plus a shareable score at the end.
Questions cover Tuvalu's geography (nine islands and atolls scattered across 900,000 km² of ocean, the highest point at just 4.6 metres, the capital Funafuti), the devastating impact of climate change (king tides flooding the capital, groundwater salinization, the iconic COP26 speech filmed knee-deep in seawater), the lucrative .tv domain deal with Verisign, the journey from the Ellice Islands under British rule to independence in 1978, Polynesian culture including the fatele dance and Te Ano ball game, and an economy built on copra, fish, and foreign aid.
Tuvalu is one of the most climate-vulnerable nations on Earth. While the islands themselves are not sinking, rising sea levels caused by global warming are steadily encroaching on its land. King tides already flood parts of Funafuti regularly, saltwater is contaminating freshwater supplies, and scientists project that much of Tuvalu could become uninhabitable by the end of the century without significant global action on emissions.
Every country is assigned a two-letter internet country-code top-level domain, and Tuvalu received .tv. Recognizing its commercial value to television and streaming companies, Tuvalu sold the rights to market the domain to a California company in 1998, which was later acquired by Verisign in 2000 in a deal worth $50 million over 12 years. The royalties — roughly $5 million per year — helped fund Tuvalu's UN membership and remain a vital source of government income.
Tuvalu has been proactively planning for the worst-case scenario. In 2022, it announced plans to become the world's first digital nation, preserving its sovereignty and culture in the metaverse. In 2023, Tuvalu signed the Falepili Union treaty with Australia, which offers Tuvaluans a special pathway to migrate to Australia. Tuvalu has also been one of the most vocal nations at international climate conferences, urging the world to act before displacement becomes unavoidable.
Last updated: April 2026