Countries
Key facts
- Capital
- Niamey
- Region
- Africa, Western Africa
- Population
- 27,917,831 (2025)
- Area
- 1,267,000 km²
- Currency
- West African CFA franc (XOF)
- Languages
- French, Hausa, Kanuri, Zarma
- Calling code
- +227
- Internet domain
- .ne
- ISO codes
- NE, NER, 562
- Time zone
- UTC+1:00
- United Nations
- Member state
- Postal code pattern
- #### (# = digit, @ = letter)
Land and position
Niger covers about 1,267,000 square kilometres. By area it ranks 23rd among the 250 countries and territories on this site. It is a little smaller than Chad and a little larger than Angola. It shares a land border with 7 neighbours: Burkina Faso, Benin, Algeria, Libya, Mali, Nigeria, Chad. It is landlocked, which means it has no sea coast. Its centre lies at about 16° north, 8° east, in the northern hemisphere.
Neighbours
People
About 27.9 million people live in Niger (World Bank, 2025). That makes it the 54th most populous of the 246 places on this site with a figure, with about 0.34 percent of the world's people. On average there are 22 people to each square kilometre. About 18 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, Hausa, Kanuri, Zarma. A person from Niger is called Nigerien.
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, Mali, Senegal, Togo. The World Bank puts the size of its economy (GDP) at about US$ 21.6 billion (2025), which is about US$ 775 for each person (2025).
Time
Niger uses one time zone, UTC+1:00 (Africa/Niamey). 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 |
|---|---|
| Niamey | 1,323,691 |
| Maradi | 361,702 |
| Zinder | 318,874 |
| Tahoua | 159,468 |
| Agadez | 149,549 |
| Arlit | 106,448 |
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
Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mauritania. 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.