Countries
Key facts
- Capital
- Tripoli
- Region
- Africa, Northern Africa
- Population
- 7,458,555 (2025)
- Area
- 1,759,540 km²
- Currency
- Libyan dinar (LYD)
- Languages
- Arabic, Italian, English
- Calling code
- +218
- Internet domain
- .ly
- ISO codes
- LY, LBY, 434
- Time zone
- UTC+2:00
- United Nations
- Member state
Land and position
Libya covers about 1,759,540 square kilometres. By area it ranks 18th among the 250 countries and territories on this site. It is a little smaller than Sudan and a little larger than Iran. It shares a land border with 6 neighbours: Algeria, Egypt, Niger, Sudan, Chad, Tunisia. Its centre lies at about 25° north, 17° east, in the northern hemisphere.
Neighbours
People
About 7.46 million people live in Libya (World Bank, 2025). That makes it the 106th most populous of the 246 places on this site with a figure. On average there are 4.2 people to each square kilometre. About 88 percent of people live in towns and cities (World Bank, 2025). A baby born there can expect to live about 71 years (World Bank, 2024). Languages listed for it: Arabic, Italian, English. A person from Libya is called Libyan.
Money and economy
The currency is the Libyan dinar (code LYD, symbol ل.د). The World Bank puts the size of its economy (GDP) at about US$ 48.1 billion (2025), which is about US$ 6,449 for each person (2025).
Time
Libya uses one time zone, UTC+2:00 (Africa/Tripoli). 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 |
|---|---|
| Tripoli | 1,302,947 |
| Benghazi | 757,490 |
| Misratah | 355,657 |
| Zliten | 203,790 |
| Al Khums | 201,943 |
| Az Zāwīyah | 200,000 |
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 Northern Africa
Morocco, Western Sahara. 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.