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From Bizarre To Hilarious, Here Are 36 Lesser-Known Facts About These Countries
With over 195 countries on our planet, the world is a pretty strange place if you think about it. Every country is vastly different, whether it be the geography, the culture, or just the people living in it. However, isn’t it this exact diversity that makes things appealing?
Speaking of interesting things about countries, netizens revealed some of the most random facts of their homelands, and boy, are they intriguing. While some are just hilariously bizarre, others might actually blow your mind. We have collected the best ones for you, so just scroll down to check them out!
More info: Reddit
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Argentina
Legally, the president must be the godfather of the seventh son or daughter of a family, or else the child could become a werewolf or witch.
Not sure if this law is actually enforced lol.
RELATED:
#2
United States Of America
Our state and national parks are why you should visit us, not our cities. We have a very robust park system in pretty much every biome. You can hike and camp in almost every one. Please, take a day outside of LA or NYC and visit a nearby state/National park for a day. You won't regret it. .
#3
Germany
Its legal to break out of prison .
As you scroll through the list, you might be surprised by a few of them, but isn’t that the whole point of these “interesting facts?” After all, it's fun dropping random facts like this and increasing people's curiosity. Also, research shows that curiosity can spark dopamine within humans, giving them a little squirt when these facts are laid out.
Basically, our brains get a tiny happiness boost when we share information that surprises other people. Suddenly, you’re not just chatting, you’re the fun fact person, the cultural ambassador, the most interesting human in the room for five seconds. Moments like, “I’ve been waiting my whole life to tell someone this,” might not come too often, so when they do, obviously, anyone would seize it!
#4
Japan
Japan isn't some magical utopia like you see in your animes, nor is it some Madmax hellscape like people on Reddit would like you to believe. It's just like any country in the world with its own pros and cons.
#5
Brazil
The longest border France shares with another country is with Brazil, through French Guiana, measuring 730 kilometers in length.
#6
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan is the largest double landlocked country, other one being Liechtenstein, biggest of only 2 countries with such geographic location.
A lot of these random country facts come from a place of cultural pride, even when they are framed as jokes. Sharing a quirky law, an unhinged food combo, or a hyper-specific tradition is a subtle way of stating where you come from. Experts call this identity signaling: we use small, memorable details to show people who we are and what shaped us.
Instead of giving a whole backstory or history lesson, people drop a fun fact and let it do the work. It’s also a shortcut to connection. When someone reacts with curiosity, disbelief, or laughter, it creates an instant bond. For people from smaller countries, these facts can feel like a way to put their home on the map for a few seconds. After all, these facts aren’t just about being interesting; they’re about being seen.
#7
Scotland
William Wallace was a knight. An armour wearing, horse riding, sword wielding knight. He wasn't some woad wearing mud grubber who lived in a hut, he was a nobleman.
Almost nothing in Braveheart represents the historical figure accurately.
Norfolk and good 59 minutes ago (edited)
Most historians agree that Braveheart is one of the most historically inaccurate movies ever. For one thing, the Battle of Stirling Bridge seems to be missing a bridge.
#8
United States Of America
There's a statue of George Washington in London's Trafaglar Square planted upon a mound of dirt imported from Washington's home state of Virginia due to his vow to "never again step foot on British soil" .
Pedantic Panda 1 hour ago
The JFK memorial in Runnymede, Surrey, is also technically US soil as it was given as a gift by Lizzy Windsor.
Also, don't you think that these interesting facts are actually tiny stories with lots of information? You don’t need context, expertise, or a long attention span to enjoy them. A single sentence like “In my country, this totally normal thing would get you arrested elsewhere” is enough to stop the scroll and spark curiosity.
Well, short-form storytelling plays a huge role here. Besides, knowing such facts and actually visiting a country to witness it sounds super exciting. In fact, I feel that these snippets of information are actually like verbal postcards that give us a tiny glimpse into what life is like in that country.
#10
United Kingdom
It is illegal to handle salmon in suspicious circumstances.
#11
Australia
At the end of World War Two Australia had the 4th largest air force in the world.
Australia also had the largest total military strength during WW2 of the Allies.... as a % of population.
#12
Suriname
Suriname is the greenest country in the world, and one of just a handful of carbon-neutral countries. Approximately 95% of the country is Amazon rainforest.
My favorite part of such facts is looking at the ones that sound fake but are actually a hundred percent true. Research shows that we live in an internet era flooded with misinformation, satire, and fake trivia accounts. That's why people have become skeptical, especially when a fact sounds too weird, specific, or inconvenient to believe.
Due to this, genuinely true cultural practices, laws, or traditions are often dismissed as myths, exaggerations, or jokes. This disbelief hits people from smaller or lesser-known countries especially hard. When your country doesn’t show up often in global media, pop culture, or school textbooks, your lived experience is already unfamiliar to most people.
I mean, I would be so disappointed if I shared an interesting fact about my country and people said it's fake, wouldn't you?
#13
Australia
Probably the most well known two for Australia:
We feel the need to tell every US Citizen here on holiday that Paul Hogan Lied to them about Fosters and Shrimp on the Barbecue.
Mentioning the line is also the fastest way to alienate yourself from Australians and be branded an absolute Nose Goblin by anyone unfortunate enough to be within earshot.
(for context for the younger generations, the main actor from Crocodile Dundee did a bunch of US-Focused ad campaigns for tourism to visit the land down under, where he frequently refers to drinking fosters brand beer (which is actually owned by the japanese company Asahi, not an australian distributor and is seen prompting the viewer to 'throw a shrimp on the barbie')
I have never met an Australian that drinks Fosters, nor have I ever found an Australian Pub that has Fosters on tap, secondly, in Australia shrimp generally refers to the freshwater variation - the saltwater variant that we all eat is very much called a "prawn" in Australia, no one refers to them as shrimp.
and a lesser known one:
We also lost a Prime Minister once upon a time who went swimming at the beach and disappeared one day,
Popular theories included a Communist submarine picking him up and kidnapping him - Though it is generally considered that he likely drowned for some reason or another - anyway in true Aussie fashion we named a public swimming pool after him.
You can read about it here:
The Curious Disappearance of Prime Minister Harold Holt
#14
Serbia
Our hyperinflation (1992-1994) peaked at 116.545.906.563.330%. Daily inflation was 62% and hourly was 2.03%
Dad would receive his salary and immediately run to convert as much as possible into a foreign currency. At one point A PENCIL cost more than average monthly salary.
#15
Mexico
There is a church in the town of Santa Rosalía built entirely out of metal. It was designed by Gustave Eiffel, shown at the 1889 Paris world's fair, and then brought to Mexico.
Well, dear readers, these facts have already worked their charm on me, and I hope they did the same for you. My favorite one was definitely about Suriname, and it's going into my list of places to visit for sure! What about you? Did any fact intrigue you so much that you are tempted to travel to the country? We would love to hear your thoughts, so drop them in the comments below!
#16
United States Of America
The "Eagle" cry that is played on almost every sports network, animated graphic, etc. is not a real Bald Eagle Cry. Someone along the line decided that the Bald Eagle Cry. Just wasn't cool enough and had to be dubbed over with a Red Tailed Hawk cry instead. No idea why. It's really a dumb fact, also Benjamin Franklin wanted our national bird to be the Turkey, which, as of late, seems more fitting given how utterly cooked we are.
#17
United States Of America
The Sixth Largest Pyramid in the world is also a Bass Pro Shop, it is what we refer to as “Redneck Mecca”.
Edit: It's the seventh largest pyramid in the world.
#18
Hungary
A hungarian doctor figured out that washing hands might actually be pretty important.
#19
Germany
University is not free, health care is not free, not everything is closed on sundays, you can get free water, you not always have to pay to pee on public toilets, THE AUTOBAHN IS NOT A RACE TRACK recommended speed is 130 kph when you are faster and cause an accident you have to pay out of your own wallet. And no, you are not Michael Schumacher if you drive your private car around 1 lap on the Nordschleife. You may become Youtube Famous on how you wreck your car and have to pay for every damage on the guard rail. 1 meter costs 70,- Euros. Aaaand yes, you have to speak German when you wanna work and live here.
#20
Colombia
Colombia 🇨🇴:
We had the longest internal armed conflict in the western hemisphere, lasting more than 60+ years, some documents argue that it started as early as in the 1910 with the banana wars. And that conflict left also the second biggest amount of displaced people IN THE WORLD out of the violence, being more than 8 million people displaced. Literally just surpassed by the displaced population result of the civil war in Syria.
Colombia has a really, really sad story that unfortunately not many people remember and commemorate, reason why today's population still elects governors that are active denials of the conflict, and even worst, of the participation of the state in that conflict, and EVEN worst, by diminishing the participation of the paramilitary and narcotrafic* groups.
Colombia 🇨🇴, also, despite not being the top 10 largest countries in the world by mass, has the biggest concentration and variety of birds 🐦 than any other country, even more than Brazil 🇧🇷.
Also, Colombia 🇨🇴 has the biggest concentration of Paramos compared to any other country in the world. Paramos are a very specific ecosystem that could be described as a high altitude forest, reaching normal temperatures of 0°. Evolution and adaptation let to the vegetation of these plans to capture particles of water from the air. So yes, Paramos are IN FACT factories of water, the purest water possible.
-Surprisingly there are mining projects from 🇨🇦 Canadian companies and some Middle Eastern countries in those Paramos, reason why a lot of colombians have somehow a resentment towards 🇨🇦 Canada (because a lot of massive mining companies that are literally poisoning virgin areas and highly important areas of the country, are canadian)
Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela and Panama, some parts of the north of Peru and the north west of brasil used to be one country like 250 years ago, it was named The Great Colombia (La gran Colombia), but emotionally unstable and immature mfs "leaders" let to everyone to run their own country somehow (Panama was kind of different and of course the U.S. help a lot to the separation).
The Andes cordillera, that goes along all the best of south America, decides and splits in 2 when it gets to continental Colombia, so we call that the 3 cordilleras. That created some really beautiful geography, and kind of somehow contributed to some regions of the same country to develop a culture very different to other, because they were separated by massive mountains.
🇨🇴 Colombia and Venezuela 🇻🇪 are very sinilar as well in population origins, but Venezuelans are more Caribbean, as most of the big cities are long the Caribbean coast; and Colombia is more Andes, as a great great part of the population, also some of the biggest cities, are far from the sea and in high altitude mountains, contributing to a more tempered and chilly weather.
Julio Garavito, who is the man that shows up in the previous 20k note, was a recognised scientist and contri it3d a lot to astronomy back then and science in general, and he was Colombian.
#21
Canada
Canada is the only G7 country with no strategic gold reserves.
#23
New Zealand And Scotland
I'll do a little combo of my two homes for mine: The original (Gaelic) name of Scotland's capital, Edinburgh, was Dùn Èidean.
When the Scottish colonists landed in New Zealand's South Island, they named their settlement Dunedin, which is the Anglicised equivalent.
If you look at the maps of the two cities, you'll find it didn't end there: They share a large number of road names, hill names etc and in some cases they are even in the "right order" as you watch the road names pass you by.
#24
Sweden
You know how people always tell others on reddit that Japan isn’t a magical utopia. The same needs to be said about Sweden.
Unemployment is a nightmare, way worse than most western countries, it’s cold, dark and lonely. Lots of immigrants and expats struggle building new lives despite trying to fit in etc.
If you still insist it’s the best place on earth, then at least consider Norway, since it’s a better version across the board.
#25
Canada
We invented peanut butter, basketball, and insulin.
#26
New Zealand
If you look at the map of our North Island, you'll see a decent sized lake in the middle of our North Island - Lake Taupo.. that lake is actually the cauldron of a super volcano, and it's last eruption was the biggest eruption the world's seen in the last 5000 years.
Oh, and it's not extinct - just sleeping.
#28
United States Of America
My state is home to a real live gun worshiping cult. As in, they worship AR-15s. Rod of Iron Ministries. They've been buying up land too, and say they're planning to have their own town. They are an offshoot of the Unification Church I believe, and they have mass weddings I think once a year.
Vice did a video on them.
I just think this is crazy. I mean we have plenty gun culture here, but they are a whole nother level.
#29
India
We have a really advanced nuclear and space program.
India is one of only a few nations worldwide and the only developing one that possesses
Complete nuclear fuel cycle from uranium mining → fuel fabrication → power generation → reprocessing → waste management.
Three-stage civilian strategy (PHWR → FBR → Thorium reactors) is also unmatched in long-term vision.
No other developing country has achieved that level of *technological sovereignty. (*Our nuclear program was primarily developed indigenously due to us facing severe restrictions from test nuclear wmds)
We developed Asia's first nuclear research reactor and the world's first nuclear reactor to use U 233 as fuel. We also are developing AWHR ,world’s first reactor concept centered on thorium utilization and passive safety. BARC also finished fuelling a sodium cooled fast breeder reactor which has set us on a path to be the 2nd nation to fully develop a FBR.
Siegfried Heckler a former director of Las Alamos laboratory after visiting Indian nuclear facilities said that "Indian nuclear facilities are one of the most advanced in the world , more advanced than anything in the US and only matched by facilities present in Russia"
Our Space Program is really advanced too -
Discovered water molecules on the Moon (Chandrayaan-1, 2008)
First Mars mission to succeed on its maiden attempt (Mangalyaan, 2014)
Least expensive interplanetary mission ever (Mangalyaan, 2014)
Record launch of 104 satellites in a single mission (PSLV-C37, 2017)
The most power earth imaging satellite (a collab with NASA and ISRO)
First landing near the lunar south pole (Chandrayaan-3, 2023)
The most powerful satellite imager on lunar orbit (Chandrayaan-2)
First solar mission to the L1 point from Asia (Aditya-L1, 2023).
#30
China
In 2017, we fell out with North Korea over the nuclear issue. KCNA openly accused China of “going with the flow of the United States,” and we responded by saying, “KCNA, your criticism of China is unreasonable.”.
#31
Switzerland
"Our country is better than yours."
But that one usually results in a smack or two, so I prefer to stick to: There’s a mountain pass in Switzerland where rain can end up in three different seas. At the lunghin pass, a single raindrop can flow into the north sea via the rhine, the adiatic sea via the po, and the black sea via the danube.
Norfolk and good 42 minutes ago
Switzerland is a beautiful country, but you'd need to be rich to live there comfortably as it has one of the highest costs of living in the world.
#33
United Kingdom
Glastonbury festival is *not* held in Glastonbury and I cannot forgive them for diminishing the one interesting thing about my hometown.
Norfolk and good 47 minutes ago (edited)
Yeah, but Pilton Festival doesn't have the same ring to it. 🤘🎸
#34
Chile
My country has the biggest earthquake ever recorded, tilting the Earth axis, and causing tsunami waves all the way to Hawaii.
#35
India
During our independence on 15th August 1947, none of our leaders were aware of what Indian border will look like. Cyril Radcliffe a British civil servant was responsible for drawing borders and the result was not made available to both India and Pakistan leaders on our Independence Day. So both side celebrated Independence Day not knowing how there borders will look like.
British did that on purpose to not drag on independence for long as they know that both side won’t be happy with borders. To till this day we are suffering due to illogical borders drawn by British.
#36
Reunion Island
Reunion Island 🇷🇪 have the most active volcano of the world
And an pedophile cult leader escape prison with a stolen helicopter.
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What do you think ?
Tim Fawcett 1 hour ago
I know ir is an almost unknown fact to the non-British - but most of the UK actually exists outside of London.
Norfolk and good 23 minutes ago (edited)
Also, very few (possibly as little as 2%) of British people talk with an RP English accent but it's the accent you hear most commonly in the media thanks to the likes of Benedict Cumberbatch, Judi Dench, Tom Hiddleston etc.
Load More Replies... Tim Fawcett 1 hour ago
I know ir is an almost unknown fact to the non-British - but most of the UK actually exists outside of London.
Norfolk and good 23 minutes ago (edited)
Also, very few (possibly as little as 2%) of British people talk with an RP English accent but it's the accent you hear most commonly in the media thanks to the likes of Benedict Cumberbatch, Judi Dench, Tom Hiddleston etc.
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