Countries
Key facts
- Capital
- Bangui
- Region
- Africa, Middle Africa
- Population
- 5,513,282 (2025)
- Area
- 622,984 km²
- Currency
- Central African CFA franc (XAF)
- Languages
- French, Sango, Lingala, Kongo
- Calling code
- +236
- Internet domain
- .cf
- ISO codes
- CF, CAF, 140
- Time zone
- UTC+1:00
- United Nations
- Member state
Land and position
The Central African Republic covers about 622,984 square kilometres. By area it ranks 45th among the 250 countries and territories on this site. It is a little smaller than Somalia and a little larger than Ukraine. It shares a land border with 6 neighbours: DR Congo, Congo, Cameroon, Sudan, South Sudan, Chad. It is landlocked, which means it has no sea coast. Its centre lies at about 7° north, 21° east, in the northern hemisphere.
Neighbours
People
About 5.51 million people live in the Central African Republic (World Bank, 2025). That makes it the 120th most populous of the 246 places on this site with a figure. On average there are 8.8 people to each square kilometre. About 45 percent of people live in towns and cities (World Bank, 2025). A baby born there can expect to live about 58 years (World Bank, 2024). Languages listed for it: French, Sango, Lingala, Kongo.
Money and economy
The currency is the Central African CFA franc (code XAF, symbol Fr). It is also the main currency of Cameroon, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon. The World Bank puts the size of its economy (GDP) at about US$ 3.07 billion (2025), which is about US$ 556 for each person (2025).
Time
The Central African Republic uses one time zone, UTC+1:00 (Africa/Bangui). 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 |
|---|---|
| Bangui | 812,407 |
| Bimbo | 348,802 |
| Bégoua | 264,067 |
| Carnot | 129,032 |
| Berbérati | 103,713 |
| Bambari | 83,029 |
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 Middle Africa
Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, São Tomé and Príncipe. 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.