Young Geographer of the Year
The Young Geographer of the Year competition is run in partnership with Geographical and is kindly supported by Esri UK, Ordnance Survey and Philip’s.
The Young Geographer of the Year is the Society’s annual competition which recognises the outstanding work of the next generation of geographers. With its age ranges spanning the primary years to A Level, the competition encourages thoughtful and creative answers to the competition’s theme which is set each year.
The Society encourages schools to run their own in-house competition and then send their top 10 entries into the international competition. The Young Geographer competition has been running for over 20 years and every year thousands of children across the world take part.
2025 competition
The theme for the Young Geographer of the Year competition 2025 is:
Understanding islands
Let’s take a closer look at the World’s islands.
It is estimated that our planet contains almost 670,000 islands, of which around 11,000 are permanently inhabited. Islands have a unique geography; their landscapes and coastlines vary massively – some are home to volcanoes; others are barely above sea level. Some are barren, deserts or rocky outcrops, others lush vegetation havens for a range of unique wildlife and plant species. There are islands seen by many as popular holiday destinations, and there are others that are inaccessible or many miles from civilisation. Every island is unique, and every island has its challenges.
2024 competition
The theme for the Young Geographer of the Year competition 2024 was 'Choose Geography'.
The Society invited you to create your own Choose Geography poster to promote the value of choosing geography at school, in further study and in the workplace, linking geographical skills to real people and jobs that make a difference. We were looking for eye catching, creative and informative posters that promote geography as an excellent choice, highlighting its relevance and demonstrating how studying geography can help you understand the world we live in and the ‘big issues’ that we face as a society.
View the winners of the 2024 competition.
2023 competition
The theme for the Young Geographer of the Year competition 2023 was 'A blueprint for the future'.
The Society invited you to create your own blueprint for the future. We were looking for innovative ideas to address problems in areas such as food production and supply, energy and sustainability, water security, resources, population growth, economic crisis, transport, travel, urbanisation, risk management, trade, environmental management, biodiversity and more.
View the winners of the 2023 competition.
For 2022's Young Geographer of the Year competition we asked young people 'Where, how and why': where might they want to travel to, how would they get there and why there.
View the winners of the 2022 competition
The Young Geographer of the Year competition and Rex Walford Award are kindly supported by:
