African countries by population
All 54 African countries ranked by population, with ten years of history and the IMF's projections to 2030.
What the figure counts
Population here is the number of people living in a country in a given year, in millions, as published in the IMF's World Economic Outlook database.
The IMF's figures can differ from national census results and from United Nations estimates, because sources, methods and years differ. Where a country has not held a recent census, population figures are estimates.
The figures from 2026 onward are the IMF's projections, not ours.
Highest: Nigeria
237.6 million people
Lowest: Seychelles
0.1 million people
Middle country of 53
15.8 million people
Highest compared with lowest
1,947.4 times
Source: International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook database, October 2026 (DataMapper indicators NGDPDPC, NGDPD and LP). Last checked 24 October 2026.
View the data as a table
| Period | Nigeria | Ethiopia | Egypt | Democratic Republic of the Congo | Tanzania |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 190.7 | 89.1 | 89.0 | 77.3 | 52.0 |
| 2016 | 195.4 | 91.2 | 91.0 | 79.8 | 53.8 |
| 2017 | 200.3 | 93.4 | 95.2 | 82.4 | 55.7 |
| 2018 | 204.9 | 95.5 | 97.1 | 85.1 | 57.4 |
| 2019 | 209.5 | 97.6 | 98.9 | 87.9 | 59.2 |
| 2020 | 214.0 | 99.7 | 100.6 | 90.8 | 61.0 |
| 2021 | 218.5 | 101.9 | 102.1 | 93.8 | 62.8 |
| 2022 | 223.2 | 104.1 | 103.6 | 96.8 | 64.7 |
| 2023 | 227.9 | 105.7 | 105.2 | 99.9 | 66.6 |
| 2024 | 232.7 | 108.4 | 106.6 | 103.2 | 68.6 |
| 2025 | 237.6 | 110.6 | 107.9 | 106.6 | 70.5 |
| 2026 | 242.6 (partial) | 112.4 (partial) | 110.1 (partial) | 110.0 (partial) | 72.6 (partial) |
| 2027 | 247.7 (partial) | 114.2 (partial) | 112.3 (partial) | 113.6 (partial) | 74.6 (partial) |
| 2028 | 252.9 (partial) | 116.0 (partial) | 114.5 (partial) | 117.3 (partial) | 76.7 (partial) |
| 2029 | 258.2 (partial) | 117.9 (partial) | 116.8 (partial) | 121.1 (partial) | 78.8 (partial) |
| 2030 | 263.7 (partial) | 119.7 (partial) | 120.3 (partial) | 125.1 (partial) | 80.9 (partial) |
Source: International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook database, October 2026 (DataMapper indicators NGDPDPC, NGDPD and LP). Last checked 24 October 2026.
View the data as a table
| Item | 2015 | 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Niger | 20.0 | 29.1 | +9.1 |
| Equatorial Guinea | 1.2 | 1.6 | +0.5 |
| Angola | 28.2 | 39.2 | +11.1 |
| Democratic Republic of the Congo | 77.3 | 106.6 | +29.3 |
| Mali | 18.6 | 25.2 | +6.6 |
| Tanzania | 52.0 | 70.5 | +18.5 |
| Uganda | 35.5 | 48.0 | +12.5 |
| Chad | 14.1 | 19.0 | +4.8 |
| Madagascar | 23.5 | 31.4 | +7.9 |
| Zambia | 16.4 | 21.9 | +5.5 |
Source: International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook database, October 2026 (DataMapper indicators NGDPDPC, NGDPD and LP). Last checked 24 October 2026.
Countries with no 2015 figure in the IMF series are left out.
Showing 54 of 54
| Rank | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | Algeria | Northern Africa | 5,997 | 284.5 | 47.4 | 18.7 | 50.2 |
| 11 | Angola | Middle Africa | 3,588 | 140.7 | 39.2 | 39.3 | 46.6 |
| 28 | Benin | Western Africa | 1,661 | 24.6 | 14.8 | 30.4 | 17.1 |
| 42 | Botswana | Southern Africa | 7,802 | 19.9 | 2.5 | 15.7 | 2.7 |
| 20 | Burkina Faso | Western Africa | 1,150 | 27.7 | 24.1 | 28.2 | 27.0 |
| 29 | Burundi | Eastern Africa | 469 | 6.8 | 14.5 | 31.0 | 16.8 |
| 51 | Cabo Verde | Western Africa | 5,961 | 3.1 | 0.5 | 4.7 | 0.5 |
| 17 | Cameroon | Middle Africa | 1,980 | 59.2 | 29.9 | 31.3 | 33.8 |
| 38 | Central African Republic | Middle Africa | 841 | 4.6 | 5.5 | 20.1 | 6.5 |
| 24 | Chad | Middle Africa | 1,158 | 22.0 | 19.0 | 34.4 | 21.7 |
| 50 | Comoros | Eastern Africa | 1,768 | 1.6 | 0.9 | 24.7 | 1.0 |
| 36 | Congo | Middle Africa | 2,378 | 15.4 | 6.5 | 28.1 | 7.4 |
| 4 | Democratic Republic of the Congo | Middle Africa | 872 | 92.9 | 106.6 | 37.9 | 125.1 |
| 15 | Côte d'Ivoire | Western Africa | 3,037 | 99.9 | 32.9 | 32.6 | 37.9 |
| 49 | Djibouti | Eastern Africa | 4,251 | 4.5 | 1.1 | 15.5 | 1.1 |
| 3 | Egypt | Northern Africa | 3,379 | 364.6 | 107.9 | 21.2 | 120.3 |
| 46 | Equatorial Guinea | Middle Africa | 7,850 | 12.9 | 1.6 | 39.3 | 1.9 |
| 54 | Eritrea | Eastern Africa | Not published | Not published | Not published | Not published | Not published |
| 47 | Eswatini | Southern Africa | 4,148 | 5.2 | 1.3 | 9.8 | 1.3 |
| 2 | Ethiopia | Eastern Africa | 1,142 | 126.4 | 110.6 | 24.1 | 119.7 |
| 44 | Gabon | Middle Africa | 9,491 | 21.9 | 2.3 | 19.5 | 2.6 |
| 41 | Gambia | Western Africa | 974 | 2.8 | 2.9 | 28.4 | 3.2 |
| 14 | Ghana | Western Africa | 3,271 | 114.7 | 35.1 | 22.2 | 38.2 |
| 27 | Guinea | Western Africa | 2,675 | 42.3 | 15.8 | 28.0 | 17.9 |
| 45 | Guinea-Bissau | Western Africa | 1,315 | 2.7 | 2.0 | 24.0 | 2.2 |
| 7 | Kenya | Eastern Africa | 2,548 | 135.9 | 53.4 | 23.2 | 58.0 |
| 43 | Lesotho | Southern Africa | 1,170 | 2.8 | 2.4 | 12.3 | 2.5 |
| 37 | Liberia | Western Africa | 910 | 5.2 | 5.7 | 28.2 | 6.4 |
| 35 | Libya | Northern Africa | 5,998 | 44.7 | 7.5 | 14.2 | 7.9 |
| 16 | Madagascar | Eastern Africa | 619 | 19.5 | 31.4 | 33.8 | 36.1 |
| 21 | Malawi | Eastern Africa | 627 | 15.1 | 24.1 | 32.8 | 27.7 |
| 19 | Mali | Western Africa | 1,238 | 31.2 | 25.2 | 35.7 | 29.3 |
| 39 | Mauritania | Western Africa | 2,723 | 12.6 | 4.6 | 24.9 | 5.2 |
| 48 | Mauritius | Eastern Africa | 12,935 | 16.1 | 1.2 | -1.0 | 1.2 |
| 12 | Morocco | Northern Africa | 4,878 | 184.0 | 37.7 | 10.5 | 39.3 |
| 13 | Mozambique | Eastern Africa | 659 | 23.6 | 35.8 | 32.5 | 40.9 |
| 40 | Namibia | Southern Africa | 4,924 | 15.1 | 3.1 | 30.7 | 3.4 |
| 18 | Niger | Western Africa | 730 | 21.3 | 29.1 | 45.6 | 34.8 |
| 1 | Nigeria | Western Africa | 1,223 | 290.5 | 237.6 | 24.6 | 263.7 |
| 30 | Rwanda | Eastern Africa | 1,156 | 16.4 | 14.2 | 25.7 | 15.6 |
| 52 | São Tomé and Príncipe | Middle Africa | 4,084 | 1.0 | 0.2 | 20.0 | 0.3 |
| 23 | Senegal | Western Africa | 1,934 | 37.1 | 19.2 | 31.5 | Not published |
| 53 | Seychelles | Eastern Africa | 19,007 | 2.3 | 0.1 | Not published | 0.1 |
| 33 | Sierra Leone | Western Africa | 874 | 7.7 | 8.8 | 25.3 | 9.8 |
| 26 | Somalia | Eastern Africa | 780 | 13.2 | 17.0 | 31.8 | 19.5 |
| 6 | South Africa | Southern Africa | 6,769 | 427.1 | 63.1 | 13.3 | 67.0 |
| 32 | South Sudan | Eastern Africa | 454 | 5.5 | 12.2 | 9.7 | 13.5 |
| 8 | Sudan | Northern Africa | 724 | 36.5 | 50.4 | 31.2 | 57.3 |
| 5 | Tanzania | Eastern Africa | 1,270 | 89.6 | 70.5 | 35.6 | 80.9 |
| 34 | Togo | Western Africa | 1,371 | 11.9 | 8.7 | 22.8 | 9.7 |
| 31 | Tunisia | Northern Africa | 4,637 | 57.3 | 12.3 | 8.3 | 12.6 |
| 9 | Uganda | Eastern Africa | 1,384 | 66.5 | 48.0 | 35.3 | 57.3 |
| 22 | Zambia | Eastern Africa | 1,310 | 28.7 | 21.9 | 33.6 | 25.0 |
| 25 | Zimbabwe | Eastern Africa | 3,358 | 58.3 | 17.4 | 23.3 | 19.3 |
Source: International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook database, October 2026 (DataMapper indicators NGDPDPC, NGDPD and LP). Last checked 24 October 2026.
How to read this ranking
- Every figure is in current US dollars, so countries sit on one scale. When a country's currency loses value against the dollar, its figure in dollars falls even if prices at home did not change in the same way.
- The numbers for 2015 to 2025 are the IMF's published history. For the most recent years they include IMF estimates, and they can be revised in each new edition. Figures from 2026 onward are IMF projections, not our forecasts, and they are drawn with a dashed line.
- Rank order can change a lot from one edition to the next for countries that are close together. Read the gap between countries, not only the rank.
What is missing
- No figure for 2025: Eritrea. They are not ranked.
- No IMF projection to 2030 in this edition: Senegal.
- No 2015 figure in the IMF series, so they are left out of the change chart: Seychelles.
Method and sources
Source: the International Monetary Fund's World Economic Outlook database, October 2026 edition. We use three indicators for 54 African countries: GDP per capita in current US dollars, GDP in current US dollars and population.
We rank countries on the latest year with a published figure and show the ten years before it. We do not fill gaps. A country with no figure for the latest year is listed under what is missing.
We checked the figures at the source on 24 October 2026. The IMF can change them in later editions, and we update this page when a new edition is released.
IMF World Economic Outlook data. Download all the figures as CSV.
More rankings
- Richest countries in Africa
- Poorest countries in Africa
- Largest economies in Africa
- All Africa rankings
- Life expectancy in Africa by country
- Safest countries in Africa
- Largest countries in Africa by area
- Smallest countries in Africa
- Youngest presidents in Africa
- Oldest presidents in Africa
- Longest serving presidents in Africa
Updated from the October 2026 IMF outlook.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most populated country in Africa?
Nigeria, with 237.6 million people in 2025. Ethiopia (110.6 million) and Egypt (107.9 million) are the next most populated countries in Africa.
What is the population of Africa?
The 53 African countries with a figure for 2025 had 1,487.6 million people between them, by the IMF's figures.
What is GDP per capita?
It is a country's total economic output in a year divided by its population. It is an average per person, not what a typical person earns or owns.
Where do the numbers come from?
From the International Monetary Fund's World Economic Outlook database, October 2026 edition. The source and the date we checked it are shown under every chart.
Are the projections yours?
No. Figures from 2026 onward are the IMF's projections. We show them with a dashed line so they are never mistaken for history.
How often is this page updated?
When the IMF publishes a new edition of the outlook, usually in April and October.
Can I use these figures?
Please link to this page and name the IMF as the original source when you use a figure.