Countries of Africa
Africa has 54 recognised sovereign states — more than any other continent. From the giants Nigeria and the DR Congo to small island states like the Seychelles and Cape Verde: the continent is politically and culturally the most fragmented on Earth. Below you will find an interactive map and a comprehensive table with capitals and population figures for 2025.
Why does Africa have so many countries?
The 54 countries of Africa are largely a legacy of the colonial era. At the Conference of Berlin (1884–1885) European powers divided the continent with straight lines through maps they barely knew. Those arbitrary borders — which cut across ethnic and cultural ties — were largely adopted unchanged by the new states after the wave of independence in the 1960s. The African Union (AU) decided in 1963 to freeze the borders to prevent new conflicts.
The result is a continent of 54 countries that vary enormously in size. Algeria, at 2.38 million km², is the largest country in Africa — and also the largest country in the Arab world — while the Seychelles at 455 km² are the smallest. Nigeria, with approximately 230 million inhabitants, is the most populous; the Seychelles have barely 100,000 people. More comparative data can be found on the most populous countries page.
Four of the five most populous African countries lie in West Africa or the Horn of Africa, regions characterised by a particularly high birth rate. By comparison, Asia has 48 countries over an area of 44.6 million km², while Africa with 30.3 million km² still contains 54 countries. That greater fragmentation is directly visible on the map above.
The African Union and its free trade zone AfCFTA (launched in 2021) are working towards economic integration. The goal is a single internal market for all 54 countries — the largest free trade area in the world measured by number of participating countries. See also the pages on animals of Africa and climate of Africa for more context about the continent.
Complete country table Africa 2025
The table contains the 54 recognised UN member states of Africa with their official capital and estimated population for 2025. Source: UN World Population Prospects 2024, Worldometer 2025.
| Country | Capital | Population (2025, estimate) |
|---|---|---|
| Nigeria | Abuja | 230,000,000 |
| Ethiopia | Addis Ababa | 130,000,000 |
| Egypt | Cairo | 116,000,000 |
| DR Congo | Kinshasa | 105,000,000 |
| Tanzania | Dodoma | 68,000,000 |
| South Africa | Pretoria | 62,000,000 |
| Kenya | Nairobi | 58,000,000 |
| Sudan | Khartoum | 47,000,000 |
| Algeria | Algiers | 46,000,000 |
| Uganda | Kampala | 50,000,000 |
| Morocco | Rabat | 38,000,000 |
| Angola | Luanda | 37,000,000 |
| Ghana | Accra | 34,000,000 |
| Mozambique | Maputo | 33,000,000 |
| Ivory Coast | Yamoussoukro | 30,000,000 |
| Madagascar | Antananarivo | 29,000,000 |
| Cameroon | Yaoundé | 29,000,000 |
| Niger | Niamey | 27,000,000 |
| Mali | Bamako | 23,000,000 |
| Senegal | Dakar | 18,000,000 |
| Zimbabwe | Harare | 16,000,000 |
| Tunisia | Tunis | 12,000,000 |
| Zambia | Lusaka | 21,000,000 |
| Chad | N'Djamena | 19,000,000 |
| Somalia | Mogadishu | 18,000,000 |
| Rwanda | Kigali | 14,000,000 |
| Benin | Porto-Novo | 13,000,000 |
| Burundi | Gitega | 13,000,000 |
| Libya | Tripoli | 7,500,000 |
| Togo | Lomé | 9,000,000 |
| Sierra Leone | Freetown | 8,500,000 |
| Eritrea | Asmara | 3,500,000 |
Source: UN World Population Prospects 2024, Worldometer 2025. Rounded to millions.
The five largest countries by area
Algeria (2.38 million km²) is the largest country in Africa by area. The DR Congo (2.34 million km²) follows closely. Sudan (1.86 million km²) lost a quarter of its territory after South Sudan split off in 2011 but remains enormous. Libya and Chad round out the top five, both largely covered by desert.
By comparison, the smallest countries in Africa are island states such as the Seychelles (455 km²), São Tomé and Príncipe (964 km²) and the Comoros (1,861 km²). Each of these has fewer than one million inhabitants, but as island nations they play a specific role in the geopolitics of the oceans.
Languages and official languages
Africa is home to an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 living languages — well over a third of all languages on Earth. Most countries have adopted a colonial legacy as their official language: French (in 29 countries, including Senegal, Ivory Coast and DR Congo), English (in 24 countries, including Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa) or Arabic (in North Africa and the Horn). Only a few countries, such as Tanzania (Swahili) and Ethiopia (Amharic), have an indigenous language as their primary administrative language.
Swahili is the most widely spoken indigenous language in Africa, with more than 200 million speakers as a first or second language, primarily in East Africa. The Hausa-Fulani group in West Africa and Zulu in South Africa are other major language areas. This linguistic diversity reflects the enormous cultural richness of the continent, but also complicates economic cooperation — one reason why French and English continue to serve as lingua francas.
Sources
- United Nations — World Population Prospects 2024 (population figures by country)
- Worldometer 2025 — current estimates by country
- CIA World Factbook — areas and capitals
- African Union — member states and AfCFTA