Central America and the Caribbean: The Part of the Map Players Know Least
October 26, 2026 ยท 3 min read
Our North America map quiz asks you to find 17 countries and territories. That sounds easy, and the first four are: the United States was found every time, Canada 94%, Cuba 80% and Mexico 75%.
But across 265 answers, players got only 42% right, the lowest score of any continent map on DodoThinks. The reason is the other 13: the seven countries of Central America and the islands of the Caribbean.
The hardest places on the North America map
| Country | Found |
|---|---|
| Puerto Rico | 0 of 16 |
| Bahamas | 7% |
| Trinidad and Tobago | 17% |
| Costa Rica | 24% |
| Guatemala | 25% |
| Haiti | 25% |
| Nicaragua | 26% |
| Jamaica | 29% |
| El Salvador | 33% |
| Panama | 41% |
| Dominican Republic | 46% |
| Belize | 54% |
Each place was asked between 12 and 20 times. The numbers are small, but they all point the same way.
What people click instead
| Asked for | Clicked instead | Times |
|---|---|---|
| Nicaragua | Mexico | 5 |
| Costa Rica | Cuba | 4 |
| Costa Rica | Guatemala | 3 |
| Puerto Rico | Panama | 3 |
| Puerto Rico | El Salvador | 3 |
| Panama | El Salvador | 3 |
| El Salvador | Nicaragua | 3 |
| Bahamas | Cuba | 3 |
| Guatemala | Costa Rica | 3 |
| Honduras | Mexico | 3 |
Two things stand out. First, many players know these countries are "somewhere south of Mexico" but not in what order, so they click the wrong one in the chain. Second, Puerto Rico was clicked as Panama, El Salvador and Nicaragua, which means many people look for it on the mainland. Puerto Rico is an island in the Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic.
Central America in order
Central America is a chain of seven countries running from Mexico down to Colombia. From north-west to south-east:
- Guatemala, right under Mexico
- Belize, the small one on the Caribbean coast next to Guatemala
- El Salvador, the smallest, on the Pacific coast and the only one without a Caribbean coast
- Honduras, with a long Caribbean coast
- Nicaragua, the largest
- Costa Rica
- Panama, the S-shaped country that connects to South America
A sentence to remember the order: "Great Big Elephants Hate Nasty Cold Peanuts" (Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama).
Costa Rica is the one players miss most often in this chain. It sits between Nicaragua and Panama, the second country from the end.
The Caribbean in four steps
- Cuba is the long island south of Florida. Almost everyone finds it.
- Hispaniola is the island east of Cuba. Haiti is its western third, the Dominican Republic the rest.
- Jamaica is the smaller island south of Cuba. Puerto Rico is east of Hispaniola.
- The Bahamas are the chain of islands north of Cuba, close to Florida. Trinidad and Tobago are at the very other end of the Caribbean, just off the coast of Venezuela.
The Bahamas were found only once in 15 tries. Most wrong clicks went to Cuba, which is right beside them. On a blank map the Bahamas are many small islands rather than one shape, so they are easy to overlook.
Practise one region at a time
If the full North America map is too much at once, start smaller: our Central America map quiz and Caribbean map quiz each focus on one region. It works: on the Caribbean map on its own, players got 85% right, against 42% on the full North America map. Zoomed in, with fewer places to choose from, the islands are much easier to tell apart. Then go back to the North America map and try for all 17.
About this data
These are 265 answers on the DodoThinks North America map between 4 October and 26 October 2026. Because this map has only 17 places, each one has been asked fewer times than on our bigger maps. We will update the numbers as more people play.