Countries
Key facts
- Capital
- Quito
- Region
- Americas, South America
- Population
- 18,289,896 (2025)
- Area
- 256,370 km²
- Currency
- United States dollar (USD)
- Languages
- Spanish
- Calling code
- +593
- Internet domain
- .ec
- ISO codes
- EC, ECU, 218
- Time zone
- UTC-6:00 to UTC-5:00
- United Nations
- Member state
- Postal code pattern
- ###### (# = digit, @ = letter)
Land and position
Ecuador covers about 256,370 square kilometres. By area it ranks 79th among the 250 countries and territories on this site. It is a little smaller than Western Sahara and a little larger than Guinea. It shares a land border with 2 neighbours: Colombia, Peru. Its centre lies at about 2° south, 78° west, in the southern hemisphere.
Neighbours
People
About 18.3 million people live in Ecuador (World Bank, 2025). That makes it the 71st most populous of the 246 places on this site with a figure, with about 0.22 percent of the world's people. On average there are 71 people to each square kilometre. About 63 percent of people live in towns and cities (World Bank, 2025). A baby born there can expect to live about 78 years (World Bank, 2024). Languages listed for it: Spanish. A person from Ecuador is called Ecuadorean.
Money and economy
The currency is the United States dollar (code USD, symbol $). It is also the main currency of American Samoa, British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin Islands, Caribbean Netherlands, El Salvador, Guam, Marshall Islands, Northern Mariana Islands and 7 more. The World Bank puts the size of its economy (GDP) at about US$ 13 billion (2025), which is about US$ 7,125 for each person (2025).
Time
Ecuador spans 2 time zone areas, from UTC-6:00 to UTC-5:00. Clocks stay the same all year: there is no daylight saving time.
Time now in Guayaquil: loading
Offsets are for January 2026. See Time Zones for a converter.
Largest cities
| City | People |
|---|---|
| Quito | 2,781,641 |
| Guayaquil | 2,723,665 |
| Cuenca | 636,996 |
| Santo Domingo de los Colorados | 458,580 |
| Ambato | 387,309 |
| Portoviejo | 321,800 |
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 South America
Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Falkland Islands, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay. 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.