Country · Africa
Zambia
Republic of Zambia
Zambia is a country in Eastern Africa. Its capital city is Lusaka. About 17.4 million people live there, in an area of 752 612 square kilometres.
Picture credit: Dareisaac (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Sungaphiri (CC BY-SA 4.0) · diego_cue (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Matthew Grollnek (CC BY-SA 4.0) · This Photo (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Zambia?
Zambia lies in Eastern Africa, on the continent of Africa.
It sits in the southern half of the world, roughly 1 670 km from the equator.
Zambia is landlocked: it has no coast at all, so you cannot reach the sea without crossing another country.
It shares a border with 8 countries: Angola, Botswana, DR Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.
How big is Zambia?
Zambia covers 752 612 square kilometres.
That is about 7.3 times the size of Iceland.
Among the world's countries that makes it the 38th largest.
Spread out evenly, that is roughly 23.1 people per square kilometre.
Who lives in Zambia?
About 17.4 million people live in Zambia.
That is the 64th biggest population in the world.
People here speak English.
They pay with the Zambian kwacha (ZK).
On average, people born here can expect to live about 37 years.
The land of Zambia
The land in Zambia sits on average 1 138 metres above sea level — high enough that much of it counts as mountain country.
Because it is landlocked, everything that arrives by ship has to cross one of its 8 neighbours first.
It lies inside the tropics, which is the single biggest reason its weather is the way it is.
What makes Zambia different?
Websites from here often end in .zm.
Zambia and the rest of the world
Out of every thousand people alive on Earth, about 2 live in Zambia.
It takes up about 0.56 % of all the land that countries stand on.
Within Africa it is the 17th largest of 54 countries, and the 22nd most populated.
That is emptier than the world average of roughly 60 people per square kilometre.
Zambia and its neighbours
DR Congo, its largest neighbour, is about 3.1 times bigger.
DR Congo has more people: 84.1 million against 17.4 million.
Nature and animals
Of the animals on this site, 8 live wild in Zambia: Lion, African elephant, Giraffe, Zebra, Hippopotamus and Cheetah and more. The longest river is the Congo, running 4 700 km from source to mouth.
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 Zambia?
The capital of Zambia is Lusaka. It is the city where the country's government works from.
How many people live in Zambia?
About 17.4 million people live in Zambia, which makes it the 64th most populated country in the world. (Source: World Bank, 2018.)
Which countries border Zambia?
Zambia borders Angola, Botswana, DR Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania and Zimbabwe — 8 neighbours in total.
How big is Zambia?
Zambia covers 752 612 square kilometres, making it the 38th largest country in the world. That is about 7.3 times the size of Iceland.
Which continent is Zambia in?
Zambia is in Africa, in the part called Eastern 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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