Country · Africa
Ivory Coast
Republic of Côte d'Ivoire
Ivory Coast is a country in Western Africa. Its capital city is Yamoussoukro. About 25.1 million people live there, in an area of 322 463 square kilometres.
Yamoussoukro is the official capital, but Abidjan is much bigger and most of the government offices work there.
Picture credit: HONORE BOSSON (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Kamara kolo rachelle (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Ivory Coast?
Ivory Coast lies in Western Africa, on the continent of Africa.
It sits in the northern half of the world, roughly 891 km from the equator.
Its coastline is about 515 km long.
It shares a border with 5 countries: Burkina Faso, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia and Mali.
How big is Ivory Coast?
Ivory Coast covers 322 463 square kilometres.
That is about 7.8 times the size of Switzerland.
Among the world's countries that makes it the 69th largest.
If everybody spread out evenly, there would be about 77.7 people on every square kilometre.
Who lives in Ivory Coast?
About 25.1 million people live in Ivory Coast.
That is the 54th biggest population in the world.
People here speak French.
They pay with the West African CFA franc (Fr).
On average, people born here can expect to live about 45 years.
The land of Ivory Coast
The land in Ivory Coast sits on average 250 metres above sea level.
Its coast runs for about 515 km. Walking it end to end, at twenty kilometres a day, would take roughly 26 days.
It lies inside the tropics, which is the single biggest reason its weather is the way it is.
What makes Ivory Coast different?
A dish the country is known for: Fufu and Kedjenou.
Websites from here often end in .ci.
Ivory Coast and the rest of the world
Out of every thousand people alive on Earth, about 3 live in Ivory Coast.
It takes up about 0.24 % of all the land that countries stand on.
Within Africa it is the 28th largest of 54 countries, and the 17th most populated.
That is close to the world average of roughly 60 people per square kilometre.
Ivory Coast and its neighbours
Mali, its largest neighbour, is about 3.8 times bigger.
More people live in Ivory Coast than in Mali — 25.1 million against 19.1 million.
Nature and animals
Of the animals on this site, 1 live wild in Ivory Coast: Chimpanzee.
Photographs from Wikimedia Commons under free licences — every credit is on the page itself and in the picture credits.
Questions children ask
What is the capital of Ivory Coast?
The capital of Ivory Coast is Yamoussoukro. It is the city where the country's government works from.
How many people live in Ivory Coast?
About 25.1 million people live in Ivory Coast, which makes it the 54th most populated country in the world. (Source: World Bank, 2018.)
Which countries border Ivory Coast?
Ivory Coast borders Burkina Faso, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia and Mali — 5 neighbours in total.
How big is Ivory Coast?
Ivory Coast covers 322 463 square kilometres, making it the 69th largest country in the world. That is about 7.8 times the size of Switzerland.
Which continent is Ivory Coast in?
Ivory Coast is in Africa, in the part called Western Africa.
Where these numbers come from
Borders and outlines: Natural Earth. Names, capitals, areas, languages and currencies: ISO 3166 data (world-countries). Population: World Bank, 2018. Every derived figure on this page (ranks, density, distance from the equator) is calculated from those values.
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