Countries
Key facts
- Capital
- Gaborone
- Region
- Africa, Southern Africa
- Population
- 2,562,122 (2025)
- Area
- 600,370 km²
- Currency
- Botswana pula (BWP)
- Languages
- English, Tswana
- Calling code
- +267
- Internet domain
- .bw
- ISO codes
- BW, BWA, 072
- Time zone
- UTC+2:00
- United Nations
- Member state
Land and position
Botswana covers about 600,370 square kilometres. By area it ranks 47th among the 250 countries and territories on this site. It is a little smaller than Ukraine and a little larger than Madagascar. It shares a land border with 4 neighbours: Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe. It is landlocked, which means it has no sea coast. Its centre lies at about 22° south, 24° east, in the southern hemisphere.
Neighbours
People
About 2.56 million people live in Botswana (World Bank, 2025). That makes it the 144th most populous of the 246 places on this site with a figure. On average there are 4.3 people to each square kilometre. About 68 percent of people live in towns and cities (World Bank, 2025). A baby born there can expect to live about 69 years (World Bank, 2024). Languages listed for it: English, Tswana. A person from Botswana is called Motswana.
Money and economy
The currency is the Botswana pula (code BWP, symbol P). The World Bank puts the size of its economy (GDP) at about US$ 19.9 billion (2025), which is about US$ 7,778 for each person (2025).
Time
Botswana uses one time zone, UTC+2:00 (Africa/Gaborone). Clocks stay the same all year: there is no daylight saving time.
Time now: loading
Offsets are for January 2026. See Time Zones for a converter.
Largest cities
| City | People |
|---|---|
| Gaborone | 246,325 |
| Francistown | 103,417 |
| Mogoditshane | 88,004 |
| Maun | 85,350 |
| Molepolole | 74,861 |
| Serowe | 55,676 |
City figures are from GeoNames and count the city itself, not the wider urban area. They can be some years old, so use them to see the order of size.
More in Southern Africa
Eswatini, Lesotho. See the whole region.
Figures were collected on 11 November 2026 from the World Bank, GeoNames and the open countries data set. See About and data sources. Borders and names follow those sources and do not express any view on disputed territory.