Countries
Key facts
- Capital
- Asmara
- Region
- Africa, Eastern Africa
- Population
- 3,607,003 (2025)
- Area
- 121,320 km²
- Currency
- Eritrean nakfa (ERN)
- Languages
- Afar, Arabic, Tigre, Kunama, Tigrinya
- Calling code
- +291
- Internet domain
- .er
- ISO codes
- ER, ERI, 232
- Time zone
- UTC+3:00
- United Nations
- Member state
Land and position
Eritrea covers about 121,320 square kilometres. By area it ranks 100th among the 250 countries and territories on this site. It is a little smaller than Nicaragua and a little larger than North Korea. It shares a land border with 3 neighbours: Djibouti, Ethiopia, Sudan. Its centre lies at about 15° north, 39° east, in the northern hemisphere.
Neighbours
People
About 3.61 million people live in Eritrea (World Bank, 2025). That makes it the 132nd most populous of the 246 places on this site with a figure. On average there are 30 people to each square kilometre. About 35 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: Afar, Arabic, Tigre, Kunama, Tigrinya. A person from Eritrea is called Eritrean.
Money and economy
The currency is the Eritrean nakfa (code ERN, symbol Nfk). The World Bank puts the size of its economy (GDP) at about US$ 2.07 billion (2011), which is about US$ 689 for each person (2011).
Time
Eritrea uses one time zone, UTC+3:00 (Africa/Asmara). 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 |
|---|---|
| Asmara | 563,930 |
| Keren | 74,800 |
| Himora | 46,100 |
| Af’abet | 35,673 |
| Massawa | 23,100 |
| Assab | 21,300 |
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 Eastern Africa
British Indian Ocean Territory, Burundi, Comoros, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mayotte. 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.