Country · Africa
Mauritania
Islamic Republic of Mauritania
Mauritania is a country in Western Africa. Its capital city is Nouakchott. About 4.4 million people live there, in an area of 1 030 700 square kilometres.
Picture credit: Seriouslyfab (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Michal Huniewicz (CC BY 3.0) · Mohamed Ekeibed (CC BY-SA 4.0) · IssamBarhoumi (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Magharebia (CC BY 2.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Mauritania?
Mauritania lies in Western Africa, on the continent of Africa.
It sits in the northern half of the world, roughly 2 226 km from the equator.
Its coastline is about 754 km long.
It shares a border with 4 countries: Algeria, Mali, Senegal and Western Sahara.
How big is Mauritania?
Mauritania covers 1 030 700 square kilometres.
That is about 10 times the size of Iceland.
Among the world's countries that makes it the 28th largest.
Spread out evenly, that is roughly 4.3 people per square kilometre.
Who lives in Mauritania?
About 4.4 million people live in Mauritania.
That is the 125th biggest population in the world.
People here speak Arabic.
They pay with the Mauritanian ouguiya (UM).
On average, people born here can expect to live about 51 years.
The land of Mauritania
The land in Mauritania sits on average 276 metres above sea level.
Its coast runs for about 754 km. Walking it end to end, at twenty kilometres a day, would take roughly 38 days.
It lies inside the tropics, which is the single biggest reason its weather is the way it is.
What makes Mauritania different?
A dish the country is known for: Thieboudienne and Couscous.
Websites from here often end in .mr.
Mauritania and the rest of the world
Out of every thousand people alive on Earth, about 0.6 live in Mauritania.
It takes up about 0.77 % of all the land that countries stand on.
Within Africa it is the 11th largest of 54 countries, and the 40th most populated.
That is emptier than the world average of roughly 60 people per square kilometre.
Mauritania and its neighbours
Algeria, its largest neighbour, is about 2.3 times bigger.
Algeria has more people: 42.2 million against 4.4 million.
Nature and animals
Of the animals on this site, 1 live wild in Mauritania: Dromedary.
Photographs from Wikimedia Commons under free licences — every credit is on the page itself and in the picture credits.
Where this country lands in the record lists
Questions children ask
What is the capital of Mauritania?
The capital of Mauritania is Nouakchott. It is the city where the country's government works from.
How many people live in Mauritania?
About 4.4 million people live in Mauritania, which makes it the 125th most populated country in the world. (Source: World Bank, 2018.)
Which countries border Mauritania?
Mauritania borders Algeria, Mali, Senegal and Western Sahara — 4 neighbours in total.
How big is Mauritania?
Mauritania covers 1 030 700 square kilometres, making it the 28th largest country in the world. That is about 10 times the size of Iceland.
Which continent is Mauritania in?
Mauritania 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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