South Sudan: Capital, Population and Facts

Key facts

Capital: Juba
Region: Africa, Middle Africa
Population: 12,188,788 (2025)
Area: 644,329 km²
Currency: South Sudanese pound (SSP)
Languages: English
Calling code: +211
Internet domain: .ss
ISO codes: SS, SSD, 728
Time zone: UTC+2:00
United Nations: Member state

Land and position

South Sudan covers about 644,329 square kilometres. By area it ranks 43rd among the 250 countries and territories on this site. It is a little smaller than Afghanistan and a little larger than Somalia. It shares a land border with 6 neighbours: DR Congo, Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, Uganda. It is landlocked, which means it has no sea coast. Its centre lies at about 7° north, 30° east, in the northern hemisphere.

Neighbours

People

About 12.2 million people live in South Sudan (World Bank, 2025). That makes it the 81st most populous of the 246 places on this site with a figure, with about 0.15 percent of the world's people. On average there are 19 people to each square kilometre. About 22 percent of people live in towns and cities (World Bank, 2025). A baby born there can expect to live about 58 years (World Bank, 2024). Languages listed for it: English. A person from South Sudan is called South Sudanese.

Money and economy

The currency is the South Sudanese pound (code SSP, symbol £). The World Bank puts the size of its economy (GDP) at about US$ 12 billion (2015), which is about US$ 1,080 for each person (2015).

Time

South Sudan uses one time zone, UTC+2:00 (Africa/Juba). Clocks stay the same all year: there is no daylight saving time.

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Offsets are for January 2026. See Time Zones for a converter.

Largest cities

City	People
Juba	450,000
Winejok	300,000
Yei	260,720
Malakal	160,765
Wau	127,384
Kuacjok	78,000

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 Middle Africa

Angola, Cameroon, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, São Tomé and Príncipe. 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.