Countries
Key facts
- Capital
- Dakar
- Region
- Africa, Western Africa
- Population
- 18,931,966 (2025)
- Area
- 196,190 km²
- Currency
- West African CFA franc (XOF)
- Languages
- French, Wolof, Pulaar, Mandinka
- Calling code
- +221
- Internet domain
- .sn
- ISO codes
- SN, SEN, 686
- Time zone
- UTC
- United Nations
- Member state
- Postal code pattern
- ##### (# = digit, @ = letter)
Land and position
Senegal covers about 196,190 square kilometres. By area it ranks 89th among the 250 countries and territories on this site. It is a little smaller than Kyrgyzstan and a little larger than Syria. It shares a land border with 5 neighbours: Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritania. Its centre lies at about 14° north, 14° west, in the northern hemisphere.
Neighbours
People
About 18.9 million people live in Senegal (World Bank, 2025). That makes it the 69th most populous of the 246 places on this site with a figure, with about 0.23 percent of the world's people. On average there are 96 people to each square kilometre. About 56 percent of people live in towns and cities (World Bank, 2025). A baby born there can expect to live about 69 years (World Bank, 2024). Languages listed for it: French, Wolof, Pulaar, Mandinka. A person from Senegal is called Senegalese.
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, Niger, Togo. The World Bank puts the size of its economy (GDP) at about US$ 37 billion (2025), which is about US$ 1,955 for each person (2025).
Time
Senegal uses one time zone, UTC (Africa/Dakar). 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 |
|---|---|
| Dakar | 2,646,503 |
| Pikine | 1,170,791 |
| Touba | 1,120,824 |
| Guédiawaye | 329,659 |
| Thiès | 317,763 |
| Kaolack | 298,904 |
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, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Niger, Nigeria. 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.