Countries
Key facts
- Capital
- Bamako
- Region
- Africa, Western Africa
- Population
- 25,198,821 (2025)
- Area
- 1,240,000 km²
- Currency
- West African CFA franc (XOF)
- Languages
- French, Bambara
- Calling code
- +223
- Internet domain
- .ml
- ISO codes
- ML, MLI, 466
- Time zone
- UTC
- United Nations
- Member state
Land and position
Mali covers about 1,240,000 square kilometres. By area it ranks 25th among the 250 countries and territories on this site. It is a little smaller than Angola and a little larger than South Africa. It shares a land border with 7 neighbours: Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Algeria, Guinea, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal. It is landlocked, which means it has no sea coast. Its centre lies at about 17° north, 4° west, in the northern hemisphere.
Neighbours
Burkina FasoOuagadougou
Ivory CoastYamoussoukro
AlgeriaAlgiers
GuineaConakry
MauritaniaNouakchott
NigerNiamey
SenegalDakar
People
About 25.2 million people live in Mali (World Bank, 2025). That makes it the 58th most populous of the 246 places on this site with a figure, with about 0.31 percent of the world's people. On average there are 20 people to each square kilometre. About 32 percent of people live in towns and cities (World Bank, 2025). A baby born there can expect to live about 61 years (World Bank, 2024). Languages listed for it: French, Bambara. A person from Mali is called Malian.
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, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Niger, Senegal, Togo. The World Bank puts the size of its economy (GDP) at about US$ 30.1 billion (2025), which is about US$ 1,193 for each person (2025).
Time
Mali uses one time zone, UTC (Africa/Bamako). 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 |
|---|---|
| Bamako | 4,227,569 |
| Sikasso | 349,324 |
| Koutiala | 218,031 |
| Ségou | 205,787 |
| Kayes | 194,716 |
| Mopti | 186,187 |
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, Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Nigeria, Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha. 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.