Cameroon

AfricaCapital city: YaoundeCapital metro: YaoundéPresident: Paul BiyaPrime Minister: Joseph Dion Ngute
2026 population
29.4M
Rank #52 globally
Area
475k km² (184k sq mi)
Metros tracked
17
38% of population in metros
Composite score
10.0
Rank #101 globally

population: Natl annual projection (1 Jul 2025) · indicators as of 2026-09-05 · 17 metros tracked

🗺️ Geography17 metros

Cameroon metro footprint, shaded by composite tier.

Loading map…
17 polygons

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

🏙️ 17 tracked metros
17 metros
🗂️ Regions

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

10 total
📋 At a glance
Official languages
French, English
Government
Republic
Legislature
Parliament of Cameroon
Demonym
Cameroonian
Time zones
UTC+01:00, West Africa Time
Driving side
Right
Calling code
+237
Internet TLD
.cm
ISO 3166
CM
Established
1960
Highest point
Mount Cameroon (4,095 m (13,435 ft))
National anthem
O Cameroon, Cradle of Our Forefathers

Facts via Wikidata.

💹 Economy and developmentLower middle income
Human Dev. Index
#153 / 191
0.588
UNDP · 2023
GDP
#91 / 193
$58.9B
World Bank · 2025
GDP per capita
#156 / 193
$2.0k
World Bank · 2025
GDP/capita (PPP)
#150 / 190
$5.8k
World Bank · 2025
GNI/capita (Atlas)
#156 / 192
$1.9k
World Bank · 2025
Life expectancy
#172 / 194
64.0 yrs
World Bank · 2024
Median age
17.8 yrs
UN WPP · 2023
Urban population
#122 / 194
56%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. growth
2.6%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. density
#125 / 193
60/km²
World Bank · 2023
Foreign-born
#128 / 193
2.2%
World Bank · 2024
Rule of law
#159 / 175
0.09
V-Dem · 2025
Gini index
#134 / 166
42.2
World Bank · 2021
Internet users
#149 / 193
46%
World Bank · 2024
Inflation
#102 / 185
3.4%
World Bank · 2025
CO₂ per capita
#27 / 192
0.3 t
Global Carbon Budget · 2024
Renewable electricity
#44 / 186
73%
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 History3 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.

Biya era

Joseph Dion Ngute✦ Current

2019Present

Prime Minister

Tenure: 2019-presentCameroon People's Democratic Movement

Paul Biya✦ Current

1982Present

President

Tenure: 1982-presentCameroon People's Democratic Movement

Post-independence one-party era

Ahmadou Ahidjo

19601982

President

Tenure: 1960-1982Cameroonian Union / Cameroon National Union
📈 Power over timeThe Power Atlas →
Today
Minor#94 · 0.1%
3%5%8%10%2000
Power (headline share)Latent (material mass)Recognised (standing)
Cameroon · share of world power, 1960–2026

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
28.4m
#52 in the world
Since 1800
15×
from 1.9m
Peak
2023
at its largest now
Share of world
0.35%
0.19% in 1800
7.7m15.3m23.0m30.6m18001850190019502000
Cameroon · 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 Cameroon: 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
after 2100
still growing at 2100
2050
51.1m
95% band 41.4m to 59.8m
2100
88.9m
95% band 46.4m to 176m
2100 against 2025
2.97×
median still rising in 2100
46.1m92.2m138m184m1950197520002025205020752100

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
191k born · 128k died · 0 net migration
TFR 5.73 · life expectancy 33.1 · median age 19.3
1960
226k born · 148k died · 0 net migration
TFR 5.72 · life expectancy 34.7 · median age 19.5
1970
289k born · 119k died · -367 net migration
TFR 6.20 · life expectancy 48.0 · median age 18.1
1980
386k born · 138k died · +71k net migration
TFR 6.61 · life expectancy 50.9 · median age 16.7
1990
495k born · 152k died · -8k net migration
TFR 6.36 · life expectancy 54.3 · median age 15.7
2000
610k born · 198k died · -21k net migration
TFR 5.51 · life expectancy 53.3 · median age 16.2
2010
784k born · 214k died · -9k net migration
TFR 5.15 · life expectancy 57.0 · median age 16.8
2020
929k born · 212k died · -10k net migration
TFR 4.56 · life expectancy 61.7 · median age 17.4
Show all 16 decades
2030
1.0m born · 218k died · -16k net migration
TFR 3.88 · life expectancy 65.5 · median age 18.9
2040
1.2m born · 255k died · -21k net migration
TFR 3.35 · life expectancy 67.6 · median age 20.9
2050
1.2m born · 310k died · -28k net migration
TFR 2.96 · life expectancy 69.5 · median age 23.1
2060
1.3m born · 382k died · -24k net migration
TFR 2.68 · life expectancy 71.1 · median age 25.2
2070
1.3m born · 464k died · -28k net migration
TFR 2.48 · life expectancy 72.7 · median age 27.5
2080
1.3m born · 553k died · -22k net migration
TFR 2.32 · life expectancy 74.2 · median age 29.7
2090
1.3m born · 654k died · -34k net migration
TFR 2.19 · life expectancy 75.7 · median age 31.9
2100
1.3m born · 758k died · -28k net migration
TFR 2.10 · life expectancy 77.1 · median age 34.0

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

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

National Teams Champions

Every major championship won by Cameroon's national teams, newest first. 5 in total.

2017· 2017-02-05
2002· 2002-02-10
2000· 2000-02-13
1988· 1988-03-27
1984· 1984-03-18