REST Countries

How to Use This API

1. Search by Country Name

https://restcountries.com/v3.1/name/usa

Returns US data: capital (Washington DC), population, area, currency (USD), languages (English), flag SVG URL, timezones, and more. Also works for "United States" or "America".

2. Search by Country Code

https://restcountries.com/v3.1/alpha/DE

ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes. Multiple codes: alpha?codes=DE,FR,IT.

3. Get All Countries

https://restcountries.com/v3.1/all

All 250+ countries. Use ?fields=name,capital,population,flags to limit response size.

4. Filter by Region

https://restcountries.com/v3.1/region/europe

Regions: Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe, Oceania, Antarctic.

5. JavaScript — Country Display Cards

async function getCountry(name) {
  const resp = await fetch(
    `https://restcountries.com/v3.1/name/${name}`
  );
  const [country] = await resp.json();
  return {
    name: country.name.common,
    official: country.name.official,
    capital: country.capital?.[0],
    population: country.population,
    area: country.area,
    flag: country.flags.svg,
    currency: Object.values(country.currencies || {})
      .map(c => `${c.name} (${c.symbol})`).join(', '),
    languages: Object.values(country.languages || {}).join(', ')
  };
}

getCountry('japan').then(jp => {
  console.log(`${jp.name} — Capital: ${jp.capital}`);
  console.log(`Population: ${(jp.population/1e6).toFixed(1)}M`);
  console.log(`Currency: ${jp.currency}`);
});

6. Python — Find Bordering Countries

import requests

def get_with_borders(country_name):
    resp = requests.get(
        f'https://restcountries.com/v3.1/name/{country_name}'
    )
    main = resp.json()[0]
    borders = main.get('borders', [])
    
    if borders:
        border_resp = requests.get(
            'https://restcountries.com/v3.1/alpha',
            params={'codes': borders.join(',')}
        )
        border_names = [c['name']['common']
                       for c in border_resp.json()]
    else:
        border_names = []
    
    return main['name']['common'], border_names

country, borders = get_with_borders('france')
print(f"{country} borders: {', '.join(borders) if borders else 'None'}")