Countries
Key facts
- Capital
- Nouméa
- Region
- Oceania, Melanesia
- Population
- 295,333 (2025)
- Area
- 19,060 km²
- Currency
- CFP franc (XPF)
- Languages
- French
- Calling code
- +687
- Internet domain
- .nc
- ISO codes
- NC, NCL, 540
- Time zone
- UTC+11:00
- United Nations
- Not a member
- Postal code pattern
- ##### (# = digit, @ = letter)
Land and position
New Caledonia covers about 19,060 square kilometres. By area it ranks 157th among the 250 countries and territories on this site. It is a little smaller than Slovenia and a little larger than Fiji. It has no land border with any other country. Its centre lies at about 22° south, 166° east, in the southern hemisphere.
People
About 295,333 people live in New Caledonia (World Bank, 2025). That makes it the 182nd most populous of the 246 places on this site with a figure. On average there are 15 people to each square kilometre. About 68 percent of people live in towns and cities (World Bank, 2025). A baby born there can expect to live about 79 years (World Bank, 2024). Languages listed for it: French. A person from New Caledonia is called New Caledonian.
Money and economy
The currency is the CFP franc (code XPF, symbol ₣). It is also the main currency of French Polynesia, Wallis and Futuna. The World Bank puts the size of its economy (GDP) at about US$ 8.55 billion (2024), which is about US$ 29,213 for each person (2024).
Time
New Caledonia uses one time zone, UTC+11:00 (Pacific/Noumea). 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 |
|---|---|
| Nouméa | 93,060 |
| Mont-Dore | 24,680 |
| Dumbéa | 19,346 |
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 Melanesia
Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu. 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.