What Is the Smallest Country in Africa?

The African continent is a big place. It is the second-largest continent and contains 54 countries, including the island nations that dot the coastline. While some countries, like Algeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Libya, and Sudan, are huge, there are many others that do not get noticed at first glance on the map. Africa includes many tiny nations, some of them islands and some on the continent.

So, which one is the smallest?

Unsurprisingly, the smallest country in Africa is a tiny archipelago situated between the Horn of Africa and Madagascar. Known for its idyllic tropical setting and popularity as a tourist destination, the Seychelles is only 452 square kilometers (175 square miles) and has the lowest population of all the African countries, which is estimated to be just over 100,000 people. 

The Seychelles were uninhabited until 1770, when the French arrived with African slaves and Indian laborers. During the French Revolutionary Wars at the end of the 18th century, the British took control of the islands and remained the colonial power until Seychelles was granted independence in 1976. 

Today, Seychelles recognizes French and English as its official languages, along with Seychellois Creole, a French-based Creole spoken by most of the country and serves as an unofficial national language. This Creole is spoken as a first language by 91 percent of the entire population. 

The Seychelles are a beautiful place, and their economy is driven by tourism, which employs roughly 30% of the country’s workforce. This is unsurprising given the country’s picturesque landscape and reputation as a tropical paradise. 

The next smallest countries in Africa are also all island nations. São Tomé and Príncipe, the Comoros, Mauritius, and Cape Verde all hold the second, third, fourth, and fifth place, respectively.

What’s the Smallest Country on the African Mainland?

The smallest country in continental Africa (and the sixth smallest overall) is the Gambia, located in West Africa. It is a small sliver of land that encompasses the lower reaches of the Gambia River. The mouth of the river opens into the Atlantic Ocean, where the country has a small coastline and the capital of Banjul is located. To the north, east, and west, the Gambia is bordered by Senegal. 

The most significant geographical feature of this tiny country is the Gambia River, which used to be a major part of the slave-trading industry in West Africa. The British took possession of the area in the 18th century. During colonial times, the British presence in the Gambia was characterized by the need to control and suppress the slave trade, which Britain outlawed in the early 19th century. The British controlled the Gambia until 1965, when independence was declared.  

The Gambia’s total area is 11,295 square kilometers (4,361 square miles), which is comparable to just under three times the size of Rhode Island. The population is estimated to be around 2.5 million, and it includes many different ethnic groups, such as the Mandinka, Wolof, Fula, and Jola peoples. 

There are many other tiny nations in Africa. Eswatini, Djibouti, Rwanda, Burundi, Equatorial Guinea, Lesotho, and Guinea-Bissau each account for just 0.1 percent of the continent’s total land area!