Countries
Key facts
- Capital
- Diego Garcia
- Region
- Africa, Eastern Africa
- Population
- 4,000
- Area
- 60 km²
- Currency
- United States dollar (USD)
- Languages
- English
- Calling code
- +246
- Internet domain
- .io
- ISO codes
- IO, IOT, 086
- Time zone
- UTC+6:00
- United Nations
- Not a member
- Postal code pattern
- BBND 1ZZ (# = digit, @ = letter)
Land and position
The British Indian Ocean Territory covers about 60 square kilometres. By area it ranks 234th among the 250 countries and territories on this site. It is a little smaller than San Marino and a little larger than Bermuda. It has no land border with any other country. Its centre lies at about 6° south, 72° east, in the southern hemisphere.
People
About 4,000 people live in the British Indian Ocean Territory (GeoNames figure, year not stated). That makes it the 235th most populous of the 246 places on this site with a figure. On average there are 67 people to each square kilometre. Languages listed for it: English.
Money and economy
The currency is the United States dollar (code USD, symbol $). It is also the main currency of American Samoa, British Virgin Islands, Caribbean Netherlands, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guam, Marshall Islands, Northern Mariana Islands and 7 more.
Time
The British Indian Ocean Territory uses one time zone, UTC+6:00 (Indian/Chagos). 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.
More in Eastern Africa
Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi. 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.