Botswana

AfricaCapital city: GaboroneCapital metro: GaboronePresident: Duma Boko
2026 population
2.4M
Rank #148 globally
Area
582k km² (225k sq mi)
Metros tracked
4
33% of population in metros
Composite score
2.5
Rank #170 globally

population: 2022 census (18 Mar 2022) · indicators as of 2026-09-05 · 4 metros tracked

🗺️ Geography4 metros

Botswana metro footprint, shaded by composite tier.

Loading map…
4 polygons

Hover for rank, click to open the metro page. Boundaries derived from Overture Maps administrative divisions; metros without source coverage are omitted.

🏙️ 4 tracked metros
4 metros
🗂️ Districts

10 entries listed under Botswana. Click any to see its metros and footprint.

10 total
📋 At a glance
Official language
English
Government
Parliamentary republic
Legislature
National Assembly of Botswana
Demonym
Botswanan
Time zones
Central Africa Time, UTC+02:00
Driving side
Left
Calling code
+267
Internet TLD
.bw
ISO 3166
BW
Established
1966
Highest point
Otse Hill (1,491 m (4,892 ft))
National anthem
Fatshe leno la rona

Facts via Wikidata.

💹 Economy and developmentUpper middle income
Human Dev. Index
#111 / 191
0.731
UNDP · 2023
GDP
#133 / 193
$19.9B
World Bank · 2025
GDP per capita
#96 / 193
$7.8k
World Bank · 2025
GDP/capita (PPP)
#92 / 190
$20.7k
World Bank · 2025
GNI/capita (Atlas)
#96 / 192
$7.4k
World Bank · 2025
Life expectancy
#136 / 194
69.3 yrs
World Bank · 2024
Median age
22.9 yrs
UN WPP · 2023
Urban population
#81 / 194
68%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. growth
1.6%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. density
#186 / 193
4/km²
World Bank · 2023
Foreign-born
#93 / 193
4.6%
World Bank · 2024
Rule of law
#45 / 175
0.82
V-Dem · 2025
Gini index
#165 / 166
54.9
World Bank · 2015
Internet users
#139 / 193
57%
World Bank · 2024
Inflation
#83 / 185
2.7%
World Bank · 2025
CO₂ per capita
#100 / 192
3.0 t
Global Carbon Budget · 2024
Renewable electricity
#176 / 186
0%
Ember · 2024

Ranks are among sovereign countries with data; ★ marks a top-5% finish. Sources: World Bank Open Data and Our World in Data (UNDP, UN WPP, V-Dem, Global Carbon Budget, Ember, Energy Institute; CC BY 4.0). Each card credits its originating body. Renewable share is of electricity generation, not of primary energy. Each figure is the most recent year available.

Alliances & Organisations4 full memberships

Political & Economic

Subregional

Full memberDashed border = Candidate / ApplicantItalic = Dialogue / Observer

🏛️ Leadership History6 leaders · click to expand

marks a leader associated with atrocities or defiance of law, systemic subversion of democratic institutions, or a criminal conviction. Convictions arising from political persecution, and annulled convictions, are excluded. denotes a monarch. These are editorial designations, applied per entry rather than derived automatically.

Duma Boko✦ Current

2024Present

President

Tenure: 1y 8m

Mokgweetsi Masisi

20182024

President

Tenure: 6y 7m

Ian Khama

20082018

President

Tenure: 10y 0m

Festus Mogae

19982008

President

Tenure: 10y 0m

Quett Masire

19801998

President

Tenure: 17y 8m

Seretse Khama

19661980

President

Tenure: 13y 9m
📈 Power over timeThe Power Atlas →
Today
Minor#164 · 0.0%
3%5%8%10%2000
Power (headline share)Latent (material mass)Recognised (standing)
Botswana · share of world power, 1966–2026

The powerline is the headline share of world power, running from the state’s first ranked year (benchmark estimates with wide error bars before 1816). Latent power is material mass a state could mobilise (population, manpower, heavy industry). Recognised power is what the system actually treats it as (military spending, productive economy, reach, and status such as a Security Council seat or nuclear arsenal). When latent runs above recognised, a power is rising or under-rated; when recognised runs higher, it is punching above its weight or coasting on prestige. Material sub-indices run 1816 through 2016.

👥 Population over time
Population 2023
2.5m
#146 in the world
Since 1800
20×
from 121k
Peak
2023
at its largest now
Share of world
0.03%
0.01% in 1800
651k1.3m2.0m2.6m18001850190019502000
Botswana · people, 1800–2023 · dashed to 2026 is projected

Our World in Data population (CC BY): UN WPP 2024 from 1950, Gapminder v7 1800-1949, HYDE 3.3 earlier; today's borders. Figures above are as of 2023, the last year that is estimated rather than forecast. The dashed tail to 2026 is a UN WPP medium-variant projection. It is drawn because the line should reach the present, and drawn differently because it has not happened yet: no rank, peak or share on this page uses it. Before 1950 the series is reconstruction rather than contemporaneous statistics, which is worth knowing when a country’s peak sits back there. The current population shown elsewhere on this page comes from the workbook and is unchanged by this. Note that people and share of world can move in opposite directions. A country can grow steadily and still become a smaller part of humanity, which is what happened to almost every rich country after 1960.

👥 To 2100

The UN’s probabilistic projection for Botswana: the median with its 80% and 95% bands, the UN’s own high, low and zero-migration scenarios beside it. Not this site’s model; the site reads it and says what it implies.

Peak on the median
2088
3.9m on the UN median
2050
3.4m
95% band 2.2m to 5.1m
2100
3.8m
95% band 1.2m to 10.2m
2100 against 2025
1.50×
median falling from 2089
Deaths outnumber births
from 2090
on the UN medium path; migration decides the rest
2.7m5.3m8.0m10.7m1950197520002025205020752100

Tap or drag across the chart to read any year: the estimate to 2023, then the UN median, its bands and the scenarios.

estimateUN median80% and 95% bandshigh and low fertilityzero migration

What drives it

Births, deaths and net migration on the UN medium path, with fertility, life expectancy and median age, every decade from 1950.

1950
19k born · 8k died · -1k net migration
TFR 6.43 · life expectancy 46.2 · median age 17.9
1960
24k born · 8k died · -4k net migration
TFR 6.59 · life expectancy 51.2 · median age 16.7
1970
27k born · 8k died · -16k net migration
TFR 6.55 · life expectancy 56.4 · median age 14.4
1980
42k born · 8k died · -11k net migration
TFR 6.29 · life expectancy 62.5 · median age 15.8
1990
44k born · 11k died · +3k net migration
TFR 4.51 · life expectancy 60.1 · median age 16.1
2000
47k born · 21k died · +10k net migration
TFR 3.29 · life expectancy 52.3 · median age 18.7
2010
58k born · 20k died · +5k net migration
TFR 3.13 · life expectancy 59.1 · median age 21.5
2020
60k born · 15k died · -11k net migration
TFR 2.86 · life expectancy 67.6 · median age 22.3
Show all 16 decades
2030
59k born · 16k died · -3k net migration
TFR 2.49 · life expectancy 70.1 · median age 24.9
2040
55k born · 20k died · -3k net migration
TFR 2.23 · life expectancy 71.3 · median age 27.6
2050
55k born · 25k died · -2k net migration
TFR 2.08 · life expectancy 72.6 · median age 30.3
2060
53k born · 31k died · -1k net migration
TFR 1.96 · life expectancy 73.9 · median age 33.4
2070
49k born · 38k died · -4k net migration
TFR 1.89 · life expectancy 75.2 · median age 36.0
2080
47k born · 43k died · -2k net migration
TFR 1.84 · life expectancy 76.5 · median age 37.9
2090
45k born · 45k died · -3k net migration
TFR 1.80 · life expectancy 77.8 · median age 39.5
2100
41k born · 46k died · -1k net migration
TFR 1.78 · life expectancy 79.1 · median age 41.3

Every country to 2100 →

Source: United Nations, DESA, Population Division. World Population Prospects 2024. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 IGO. Estimates to 2023; projections 2024 to 2100, medium variant and probabilistic intervals. The UN revises every two years; this is the WPP 2024 revision.

🏆 National Teams

Botswana on the international stage. Click a card for the full record.