The countries of Africa

Fifty-four states, more than a quarter of the world’s countries, and sixteen of them with no access to the sea at all. No continent is this fragmented.

Reference · 54 countries · game data, updated August 2026

With 54 countries out of 195, Africa is the most fragmented continent on the planet. Part of that fragmentation dates back to the Berlin Conference of 1884–85, where borders were drawn with a ruler with no regard for peoples — which is also why so many African borders are straight lines.

Sixteen landlocked countries

That is the world record. Mali, Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho and Eswatini have no access to the sea. Two of them are even enclosed within a single other country: Lesotho, entirely surrounded by South Africa, and — outside the continent — San Marino and the Vatican inside Italy.

Ethiopia is a case apart: it had a coastline until 1993 and Eritrean independence. It is now the most populous landlocked country in the world.

Dizzying population gaps

Nigeria approaches 233 million inhabitants — more than the twenty-five least populous African countries combined. At the other end, the Seychelles hold about 121,000 people, the population of a mid-sized town. Africa combines the fastest-growing populations on Earth with a dozen tiny island states in the Indian and Atlantic oceans.

The most surrounded country

The Democratic Republic of the Congo shares a border with nine countries, making it the African champion — and the second-largest state on the continent after Algeria.

The complete list

Country	Capital	Population	Area (km²)	Neighbours
South Africa	Pretoria	64,007,187	1,219,090	6
Algeria	Algiers	46,814,308	2,381,740	6
Angola	Luanda	37,885,849	1,246,700	4
Benin	Porto-Novo	14,462,724	114,760	4
Botswana	Gaborone	2,521,139	581,730	4
Burkina Faso	Ouagadougou	23,548,781	274,200	6
Burundi	Gitega	14,047,786	27,830	3
Cameroon	Yaoundé	29,123,744	475,440	6
Comoros	Moroni	866,628	1,861	0
Republic of the Congo	Brazzaville	6,332,961	342,000	5
DR Congo	Kinshasa	109,276,265	2,344,860	9
Ivory Coast	Yamoussoukro	31,934,230	322,460	5
Djibouti	Djibouti	1,168,722	23,200	3
Egypt	Cairo	116,538,258	1,001,450	4
Eritrea	Asmara	3,535,603	121,765.8	3
Ethiopia	Addis Ababa	132,059,767	1,136,239.7	6
Gabon	Libreville	2,538,952	267,670	3
Gambia	Banjul	2,759,988	11,300	1
Ghana	Accra	34,427,414	238,539	3
Guinea	Conakry	14,754,785	245,860	6
Equatorial Guinea	Ciudad de la Paz	1,892,516	28,050	2
Guinea-Bissau	Bissau	2,201,352	36,130	2
Mauritius	Port Louis	1,245,779	2,010	0
Cape Verde	Praia	524,877	4,030	0
Kenya	Nairobi	56,432,944	591,969	5
Lesotho	Maseru	2,337,423	30,360	1
Liberia	Monrovia	5,612,817	111,370	3
Libya	Tripoli	7,381,023	1,759,540	6
Madagascar	Antananarivo	31,964,956	587,295	0
Malawi	Lilongwe	21,655,286	118,480	3
Mali	Bamako	24,478,595	1,240,190	7
Morocco	Rabat	38,081,173	446,550	3
Mauritania	Nouakchott	5,169,395	1,030,700	4
Mozambique	Maputo	34,631,766	799,380	6
Namibia	Windhoek	3,030,131	824,290	4
Niger	Niamey	27,032,412	1,267,000	7
Nigeria	Abuja	232,679,478	923,770	4
Uganda	Kampala	50,015,092	241,550	5
Central African Republic	Bangui	5,330,690	622,980	6
Rwanda	Kigali	14,256,567	26,338	4
São Tomé and Príncipe	São Tomé	235,536	960	0
Senegal	Dakar	18,501,984	196,710	5
Seychelles	Victoria	121,354	460	0
Sierra Leone	Freetown	8,642,022	72,300	2
Somalia	Mogadishu	19,009,151	637,660	3
Sudan	Khartoum	50,448,963	1,878,000	7
South Sudan	Juba	11,943,408	646,883	6
Eswatini	Mbabane	1,242,822	17,360	2
Tanzania	Dodoma	68,560,157	947,300	8
Chad	N'Djamena	20,299,123	1,284,000	6
Togo	Lomé	8,406,558	56,790	3
Tunisia	Tunis	12,277,109	163,610	2
Zambia	Lusaka	21,314,956	752,610	8
Zimbabwe	Harare	16,634,373	390,760	4

Frequently asked

How many countries are there in Africa?

54, more than a quarter of the world’s 195 countries. It is the continent with the most.

Which is the most populous landlocked African country?

Ethiopia, with around 132 million inhabitants. It lost its access to the sea in 1993, when Eritrea became independent.

Which country is entirely surrounded by a single other?

Lesotho, enclosed within South Africa. The two other cases in the world are San Marino and Vatican City, both surrounded by Italy.

Can you place these 54 countries on a map?

GeoG's 3D Globe mode plays continent by continent: run Africa on its own, or all 195 countries of the world.

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