The 10 smallest countries to qualify for the World Cup: Curacao make history

Qualifying for the World Cup finals is taken for granted by some footballing heavyweights, but it is an immense source of joy for these tiny nations.

While several of the highest-populated countries in the world rarely threaten to qualify, such as China, India and Indonesia, much smaller nations have proudly punched above their weight.

We’ve trawled through the statistics and picked out the 10 smallest countries to have ever qualified for the World Cup , listed by population at the time of the event.

Part of the old Yugoslavia, the nation of Slovenia traditionally preferred handball and skiing until the start of the new millennium.

Spearheaded by Zlatko Zahovic, they qualified for Euro 2000 and reached the World Cup two years later, surprisingly beating Romania in a play-off to do so.

Sadly, they lost all three games in South Korea and Japan, with Zahovic being sent home mid-tournament after a blazing row with the manager.

Slovenia qualified again in 2010, narrowly losing 1-0 to England, and will be hoping to reach another finals soon with Jan Oblak and Benjamin Sesko in their ranks.

Uruguay are the biggest overachievers in world football, winning two World Cups and two Olympic Golds in their proud history.

At the time of the 1930 finals, which Uruguay hosted and won, their population was under two million people.

Even in 2025, Uruguay is home to just 3.4million people and the South American nation continues to churn out world-class talent.

The United Arab Emirates qualified for the 1990 World Cup , reaching the tournament years before Asian heavyweights like Japan and Saudi Arabia made their own debuts.

With an incentive of a Rolls-Royce for every goalscorer, the tiny Gulf State travelled to Italy with hope only to suffer three comprehensive defeats to Colombia, West Germany and Yugoslavia.

They have a chance of reaching the finals again in 2026, needing to avoid defeat against Qatar to break their 36-year drought.

The expansion of the World Cup finals to 24 teams in 1982 allowed more participants from Africa and Asia.

Kuwait were one of five countries to make their finals debut in Spain, giving a good account of themselves in a tough group with England, France and Czechoslovakia.

But their only finals to date is chiefly remembered for Prince Fahad running onto the pitch and getting the referee to disallow a French goal.

World Cups would be better if mad sh*t like that was still allowed to happen.

Historically the poor relations of British football, Northern Ireland have punched above their weight at the World Cup .

Their 1982 heroics have passed into folklore, beating the hosts Spain and reaching the second round.

But their 1958 performance was even better, qualifying for the quarter-finals after beating Czechoslovakia and drawing with West Germany.

France ended the Ulstermen’s dream on both occasions and Northern Ireland’s last appearance was a group stage exit in 1986.

A narrow 2018 play-off defeat to Switzerland was the closest they’ve come to qualifying again since.

After several narrow misses, Trinidad & Tobago reached the 2006 World Cup amid joyous scenes across the Caribbean.

They even held a Sweden team containing Henrik Larsson and Zlatan Ibrahimovic to a goalless draw in their opener.

England needed two late goals to avoid a humiliating stalemate in their second match, before a battling defeat to Paraguay ended the Soca Warriors’ adventure.

Thanks to a failed 1930 census and war breaking out in 1932, we can’t be sure of the exact population of Paraguay when they made their debut at the inaugural World Cup .

Based on censuses taken in 1924 and 1936, showing the population increasing from 828,968 to 992,420, there is no doubt they’re one of the smallest finalists ever.

Paraguay beat Belgium and lost to the United States in 1930, going on to qualify for a further eight World Cups, including the 2026 tournament.

Their population is now 7.2million.

One of the most remarkable stories of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers came in Group D of the CAF where Cape Verde beat Cameroon to top and in doing so, secured a spot at their first tournament.

By land size, the island country off the west coast of Africa is the smallest to ever play at the finals and is the second-smallest in terms of population.

After famously beating England at Euro 2016 and reaching the quarter-finals, Iceland became the smallest World Cup participants ever as they reached the 2018 finals.

Topping a qualifying group containing Croatia, Turkey and Ukraine was no mean feat, meaning a rugged squad travelled to Russia with hope.

An impressive draw in their opening match with Argentina was followed by defeats to Nigeria and Croatia to ensure a group stage exit.

Steve McClaren’s pain was Curacao’s gain as the Caribbean island became the smallest country by population ever to qualify for the 2026 World Cup .

With around 185,000 people living there, the country is a similar size to Bolton and are led by former Sunderland boss Dick Advocaat.

You only need to watch their celebrations for a minute to see just how much it means to them.