How to Add a Country Dropdown List to WPForms (In 1-Click!)

Adding a country dropdown list to your form is incredibly easy. The only catch is that you need to be using the right plugin to make this as effortless as possible.

Country selectors are essential for shipping information, survey data, and user registrations. They make your forms look polished and improve user experience.

While there are various WordPress plugins out there that allow you to create a country dropdown list, I genuinely haven’t come across a solution as easy as WPForms. And the best part? It’s free!

In this guide, I’ll walk you through exactly how I set up country dropdowns in WPForms, plus share some insider tips that most people miss. 

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How to Add a Country Dropdown List to Your WordPress Forms

Some sites still use long text fields where people have to type “United States” or “UK” – which creates data inconsistencies and user friction.

Others use outdated dropdown lists missing newer countries or using old country names. A well-designed country dropdown does three important things:

• Standardizes your data collection (no more “USA” vs “United States” vs “America” entries).
• Improves form completion rates because users can quickly find their country.
• Shows professionalism that builds trust with your audience.

This is where WPForms comes in handy. Our country dropdown stays updated automatically, loads quickly, and works perfectly on mobile devices. Let me show you exactly how to set it up.

Step 1: Install the WPForms Plugin

The quickest way you can add a country dropdown list in a form is by using the WPForms plugin.  This feature is available in all WPForms license levels (including free), so you have your options open.

For this tutorial, I’ll be using WPForms Pro, which also unlocks a bunch of useful features including professionally designed form themes.

If you need assistance with installing the plugin, read this easy guide on installing WPForms. After installing WPForms on your site, you first need to create a form where you want to add the dropdown list.

To create a form, simply click WPForms » Add New from the side menu bar inside your WordPress dashboard. This will take you to the WPForms form setup screen.

Here, you can start by giving a name to your form and selecting a template. To keep things simple, I’ll just go with the Simple Contact Form template here but you’re free to pick any from the 2,000+ WordPress form templates available for Pro users.

At this point, you’ll find yourself inside the form builder with your selected template all loaded and ready to be deployed (or customized further).

Since our goal is to create a country dropdown list for this form, we’ll need to do some quick customizations as I’ll show in the next step.

Step 2: Add a Country Dropdown List

WPForms makes easy work of creating a full list of every country on the globe thanks to its ability to handle data in bulk.

Let’s break down this process so you can easily follow along. First, you need to add the Dropdown field to your form.

Simply drag the field from the left-hand pane and drop it to the area on your right to place the field inside your form.

Once you’ve added the Dropdown field, click on it. This will then open the Field Options related to it on the left-hand pane. Under the Label box, look for the Bulk Add link and click on it.

Underneath, click Show Presets to open a list of all the Dropdown field presets in WPForms, designed to make your life easier.

Go ahead and click Countries preset to load the full list of countries as the choices for your Dropdown field.

And finally, click Add New Choices to confirm the list of countries.

Great! We have a country dropdown list almost ready to go. There are 3 more small tweaks to do now.

First, let’s get rid of the 3 default choices called First Choice, Second Choice, and Third Choice. One by one, click the minus icon next to those items to delete them.

You can use the same method to remove any specific countries from the list if you want to.

Next, you should change the label of the Dropdown field. Let’s delete Dropdown and change it to Please select your country.

Next, click on the Advanced tab and choose the Modern style instead of the Classic style here.

The Modern style lets you search for a country from the dropdown list, which is really helpful when you have a long list of choices.

If that’s all you need, you’re ready to publish your form. You can skip ahead to step 4 to find out how to do that. If you want to customize the list, keep reading.

Step 3: Customize the Country Names in Your Dropdown

Now that you’ve added the country dropdown to your form, let’s make it work better for your specific audience. WPForms gives you complete control over which countries appear and how they’re organized.

Click on your country dropdown field to open the field options on the left. You’ll see a list of all countries under the Choices section. This is where the real customization magic happens.

Editing Country Names

First, you might want to clean up some of the longer country names for better user experience. For example, the default list shows “United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland”.

While that’s technically correct but unnecessarily long. Just click on that choice and edit it to simply “United Kingdom” or even “UK” if you prefer.

I do this regularly with countries like “United States of America” (change to “United States”), “Russian Federation” (change to “Russia”), or “Democratic Republic of the Congo” (change to “Congo (DRC)”).

Reordering Countries by Priority

Second, don’t forget that you can drag the answer choices up and down. That means you can put the most common selections at the top of the list so that they’re easier to find.

To move any Choice in the list, just click and hold the icon with 3 lines and drag it. Since we’re expecting most of our visitors to be in North America, we’ve moved Canada and the United States to the top.

Great! Now your country dropdown will look exactly as you want it to. All we need to do now is publish it. Click Save before moving on.

Step 4: Publish Your Form in Seconds

Now your dropdown is set up, it’s time to publish your form. It’s really easy to create a new page right from the form builder. To use the embed wizard, first click Embed at the top of the form builder.

The embed wizard allows you to either publish your form inside a new page or embed the form in an existing page. Let’s click Create New Page.

After that, enter a name for your page and click Let’s Go. At this point, you’re ready to publish your form. Before you do that though, there’s a fascinating trick I want to share.

By default, all forms in WordPress are plain with a white background and default styles. But you can make your form stand out by adding a ready-made theme.

On the right-hand panel, look for the Themes section and try the different theme options that come pre-loaded with WPForms Pro.

You can also manually change different elements of your form style with easy controls that appear underneath the themes section as well. When you’re ready, go ahead and press Publish.

Once published, feel free to go ahead and check out your form with the country dropdown list. If you selected the Modern style for the dropdown, your visitors can simply search for a country by typing the name.

For really long lists like country dropdowns, these extra features are really helpful and make your country dropdown a lot easier to use. And that’s it! Now you have a country dropdown on your WordPress form ready for your visitors to use.

FAQs on How to Add a Country Dropdown List to WPForms

Learning how to add a country dropdown list to WPForms is a popular topic of interest among our readers. Here are answers to some common queries about it:

How do I add a country list in Google Forms?

Google Forms doesn’t have a built-in country dropdown like WPForms does. You’d need to manually create a multiple choice question and type in every country name yourself – all 195 of them.

Then you’d have to maintain this list whenever countries change. WPForms saves you hours of work with its automatic country dropdown that stays updated without any effort on your part.

Can I use a country dropdown with Contact Form 7?

Contact Form 7 doesn’t include a native country dropdown field. You’d need to install a separate plugin or manually code the dropdown using HTML select tags.

Even then, you’d have to maintain the country list yourself. WPForms includes this functionality out of the box, making it much easier to implement and maintain.

How do I add phone number country codes to my form?

WPForms offers a separate Phone field that can work alongside your country dropdown. While the country dropdown handles location selection, the phone field includes built-in formatting for different countries.

For advanced setups where the country selection automatically updates the phone format, you’d need WPForms Pro with conditional logic.

Why isn’t my country dropdown showing all countries?

This usually happens when you’ve accidentally deleted countries from the list or if there’s a plugin conflict. In WPForms, go back to your form editor, click on the country dropdown field, and check the Choices section.

You can re-add any missing countries manually, or delete the field and add a fresh country dropdown to restore the complete list.

Can I put certain countries at the top of the dropdown list?

Absolutely! This is one of my favorite WPForms features. In the form editor, click on your country dropdown field, then in the Choices section, drag and drop countries using the three-line icon.

I always put the most common countries for my audience at the top – like moving United States and Canada up if most of my visitors are North American.

How do I remove countries I don’t need from the dropdown?

In your WPForms editor, select the country dropdown field and look at the Choices section on the left. Click the red X next to any country you want to remove. This is helpful if you only serve certain regions or want to keep the list shorter for better user experience.

Does the country dropdown work on mobile devices?

Yes, WPForms country dropdowns are fully mobile-responsive. They automatically adapt to touch interfaces and work perfectly on smartphones and tablets. The dropdown opens as a native mobile selector, making it easy for users to scroll through and select their country.

Can I customize the country names in the dropdown?

Yes, you can edit any country name in WPForms. Just click on the country dropdown field, find the country in the Choices section, and modify the text.

I often shorten long names like “United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland” to simply “United Kingdom” for better readability.

Next, Get Your Visitor’s Location Automatically

Did you know that WPForms can automatically display your visitors’ location on a map?

• You can activate geolocation on all of your forms with 1 click. Check out this guide on how to track user locations with WordPress form submissions to set this up.
• We also compiled a list of the best geolocation plugins for WordPress.

Create Form With Country Dropdown 🌎

Ready to build your form? Get started today with the easiest WordPress form builder plugin. WPForms Pro includes lots of free templates and offers a 14-day money-back guarantee.

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