Countries
Key facts
- Capital
- Bissau
- Region
- Africa, Western Africa
- Population
- 2,249,515 (2025)
- Area
- 36,120 km²
- Currency
- West African CFA franc (XOF)
- Languages
- Portuguese, Upper Guinea Crioulo
- Calling code
- +245
- Internet domain
- .gw
- ISO codes
- GW, GNB, 624
- Time zone
- UTC
- United Nations
- Member state
- Postal code pattern
- #### (# = digit, @ = letter)
Land and position
Guinea-Bissau covers about 36,120 square kilometres. By area it ranks 139th among the 250 countries and territories on this site. It is a little smaller than Bhutan and a little larger than Taiwan. It shares a land border with 2 neighbours: Guinea, Senegal. Its centre lies at about 12° north, 15° west, in the northern hemisphere.
Neighbours
People
About 2.25 million people live in Guinea-Bissau (World Bank, 2025). That makes it the 148th most populous of the 246 places on this site with a figure. On average there are 62 people to each square kilometre. About 47 percent of people live in towns and cities (World Bank, 2025). A baby born there can expect to live about 64 years (World Bank, 2024). Languages listed for it: Portuguese, Upper Guinea Crioulo. A person from Guinea-Bissau is called Guinea-Bissauan.
Money and economy
The currency is the West African CFA franc (code XOF, symbol Fr). It is also the main currency of Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo. The World Bank puts the size of its economy (GDP) at about US$ 2.53 billion (2025), which is about US$ 1,124 for each person (2025).
Time
Guinea-Bissau uses one time zone, UTC (Africa/Bissau). 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 |
|---|---|
| Bissau | 439,704 |
| Gabú | 49,371 |
| Contumo | 45,482 |
| Reino de Bandim | 44,718 |
| Bafatá | 33,502 |
| Reino de Antula | 30,778 |
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 Western Africa
Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali. 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.