Countries
Key facts
- Capital
- Managua
- Region
- Americas, Central America
- Population
- 7,007,502 (2025)
- Area
- 129,494 km²
- Currency
- Nicaraguan córdoba (NIO)
- Languages
- Spanish, English
- Calling code
- +505
- Internet domain
- .ni
- ISO codes
- NI, NIC, 558
- Time zone
- UTC-6:00
- United Nations
- Member state
- Postal code pattern
- ##### (# = digit, @ = letter)
Land and position
Nicaragua covers about 129,494 square kilometres. By area it ranks 99th among the 250 countries and territories on this site. It is a little smaller than Greece and a little larger than Eritrea. It shares a land border with 2 neighbours: Costa Rica, Honduras. Its centre lies at about 13° north, 85° west, in the northern hemisphere.
Neighbours
People
About 7.01 million people live in Nicaragua (World Bank, 2025). That makes it the 109th most populous of the 246 places on this site with a figure. On average there are 54 people to each square kilometre. About 59 percent of people live in towns and cities (World Bank, 2025). A baby born there can expect to live about 75 years (World Bank, 2024). Languages listed for it: Spanish, English. A person from Nicaragua is called Nicaraguan.
Money and economy
The currency is the Nicaraguan córdoba (code NIO, symbol C$). The World Bank puts the size of its economy (GDP) at about US$ 22.2 billion (2025), which is about US$ 3,173 for each person (2025).
Time
Nicaragua uses one time zone, UTC-6:00 (America/Managua). 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 |
|---|---|
| Managua | 973,087 |
| León | 144,538 |
| Masaya | 130,113 |
| Chinandega | 126,387 |
| Matagalpa | 109,089 |
| Estelí | 96,422 |
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 Central America
Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama. 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.