Countries
Key facts
- Capital
- Malé
- Region
- Asia, Southern Asia
- Population
- 529,676 (2025)
- Area
- 300 km²
- Currency
- Maldivian rufiyaa (MVR)
- Languages
- Dhivehi, English
- Calling code
- +960
- Internet domain
- .mv
- ISO codes
- MV, MDV, 462
- Time zone
- UTC+5:00
- United Nations
- Member state
- Postal code pattern
- ##### (# = digit, @ = letter)
Land and position
The Maldives covers about 300 square kilometres. By area it ranks 216th among the 250 countries and territories on this site. It is a little smaller than Malta and a little larger than Wallis and Futuna. It has no land border with any other country. Its centre lies at about 3° north, 73° east, in the northern hemisphere.
People
About 529,676 people live in the Maldives (World Bank, 2025). That makes it the 173rd most populous of the 246 places on this site with a figure. On average there are 1,766 people to each square kilometre. About 43 percent of people live in towns and cities (World Bank, 2025). A baby born there can expect to live about 81 years (World Bank, 2024). Languages listed for it: Dhivehi, English. A person from the Maldives is called Maldivan.
Money and economy
The currency is the Maldivian rufiyaa (code MVR, symbol .ރ). The World Bank puts the size of its economy (GDP) at about US$ 7.74 billion (2025), which is about US$ 14,615 for each person (2025).
Time
The Maldives uses one time zone, UTC+5:00 (Indian/Maldives). 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 |
|---|---|
| Male | 103,693 |
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 Southern Asia
Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka. 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.