Countries That Start With R

3 countries Places Checked 9 Oct 2026

Countries that start with R: there are 3, namely Romania, Russia, Rwanda. This page counts the 193 United Nations member states plus the two UN observer states, and gives each country's capital, region, population and size.

Just three countries open with R: Romania in Southeast Europe, Russia in Eastern Europe and Rwanda in Eastern Africa. None of their capitals repeats the letter, so R players have to know the countries themselves.

For a longer R list, the capitals section helps a lot. Rome, Riga, Rabat and Reykjavik all start with R. Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland, is a classic tricky spelling with its pairing of y and k. Kids usually find Rome the easiest, thanks to the many stories and school lessons about it.

Countries starting with R: 3
Most people: Russia 144.5 million
Largest by area: Russia 17,098,242 km²

Countries that start with R

Country	Capital	Region	Population	Area
Romania	Bucharest	Southeast Europe	19.5 million	238,391 km²
Russia	Moscow	Eastern Europe	144.5 million	17,098,242 km²
Rwanda	Kigali	Eastern Africa	12.3 million	26,338 km²

Their official names

Russia: Russian Federation
Rwanda: Republic of Rwanda

Capital cities that start with R

Capital	Country
Rabat	Morocco
Ramallah	Palestine
Reykjavik	Iceland
Riga	Latvia
Riyadh	Saudi Arabia
Rome	Italy
Roseau	Dominica

Countries that end with R

Ecuador
El Salvador
Madagascar
Myanmar
Niger
Qatar

Big cities that start with R

City	Country	Population
Rio de Janeiro	Brazil	6.7 million
Riyadh	Saudi Arabia	4.2 million
Rawalpindi	Pakistan	3.4 million
Rome	Italy	2.3 million
Rasapudipalem	India	1.7 million
Rabat	Morocco	1.7 million
Recife	Brazil	1.7 million
Rajkot	India	1.4 million
Ras Bayrut	Lebanon	1.3 million
Rostov-on-Don	Russia	1.1 million
Ranchi	India	1.1 million
Rangpur	Bangladesh	1.0 million

More cities that start with R

Questions people ask

How many countries start with R?

3 countries start with R: Romania, Russia, Rwanda.

Which country that starts with R has the most people?

Russia, with about 144.5 million people in the GeoNames count.

What is the biggest country that starts with R?

By land area, Russia is the largest at about 17,098,242 square kilometres.

What capital cities start with R?

Rabat (Morocco), Ramallah (Palestine), Reykjavik (Iceland), Riga (Latvia), Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), Rome (Italy).

Source: the 193 United Nations member states plus the two UN observer states (Vatican City and Palestine). Capitals, regions and land areas come from the open mledoze countries dataset; populations from the GeoNames database. Country names use common English short forms.

See every letter on one page: countries A to Z