Welcome to the USA Division of The International Geography Bee!
Within the USA, the International Geography Bee is a geography quiz competition, focusing on pure geographic knowledge. Students in the USA interested in competing in a separate competition with a focus more on applied geographic knowledge can participate in the US Geography Championships as well.
As is also the case with the US Geography Championships, within the USA, students who are in grade 8 or younger may compete both in the Junior Varsity Division of the International Geography Bee, and a younger age division as well. These include an 8th grade division, a 7th grade division, a 6th grade division, and the Elementary School Division for students in 5th grade and younger. While students competing in these 4 age divisions all use the same Online Regional Qualifying Exam (ORQE), they all compete separately at Nationals.
Within the USA Division, the same age divisions and classifications and the same definitions for IGB apply as they do for the US Geography Championships.
In 2022, the Varsity Division and Junior Varsity Division National Championships for the IGB was held during the weekend of April 21-24, 2022 at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, VA. This was held in conjunction with the Varsity and Junior Varsity National Championships of the National History Bee and Bowl, the National Political Science Bee, the National Science Bee, and the US History Bee. Varsity and JV Nationals consists of 3 preliminary rounds of 35 paragraph-length buzzer quiz questions, and two rounds of playoffs for the top students from the preliminaries. Questions used at past IGB National Championships can be found on the Resources Page and you can see further questions here from past years’ US Geography Olympiad Quiz Bowl Tournaments.
The 2022 Middle School Division and Elementary Division National Championships in the USA for the IGB was held in conjunction with the Middle School and Elementary National Championships of the US Academic Bee and Bowl, National History Bee and Bowl, National Science Bee and the US Geography Championships. These competitions were held at the International Academic Competitions Middle and Elementary School National Championships at the Hyatt Regency Orlando in Orlando, FL on June 17-20, 2022.
US high school students qualify for the National Championships of IGB in the exact same way they qualify for the National Championships of the US Geography Championships – if you qualify for the one, by definition, you qualify for the other. US students qualify for the International Geography Championships by finishing in the top quarter of their age division at an IGB Middle School / Elementary School Regional Finals tournament, the top half of their age division at Nationals, or by scoring 75 or better on the A, B, or C Set versions of the National Qualifying Exam. Qualification is then valid for two years (thus one can qualify for the 2022 International Geography Championships at either the 2021 or 2022 IGB US National Championships or through the National Qualifying Exam in the 2020-2021 or 2021-2022 academic years – though note that qualifiers from the 2018-19 and 2019-20 academic years are also welcome to attend IGC 2022 as IGC 2020 was cancelled due to Covid-19).