Central African Republic

AfricaCapital city: BanguiCapital metro: BanguiPresident: Faustin-Archange TouadéraPrime Minister: Félix Moloua
2026 population
6.5M
Rank #111 globally
Area
623k km² (241k sq mi)
Metros tracked
1
22% of population in metros
Composite score
0.7
Rank #196 globally

population: Natl annual projection (1 Jul 2024) · indicators as of 2026-09-05 · 1 metros tracked

🗺️ Geography1 metro

Central African Republic metro footprint, shaded by composite tier.

Loading map…
1 polygons

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

🏙️ 1 tracked metro
1 metros
#1568Bangui★ Capital▲ Largest
0.7
🗂️ Prefectures

20 entries listed under Central African Republic. Click any to see its metros and footprint.

20 total
📋 At a glance
Official languages
French, Sango
Legislature
National Assembly
Demonym
Central African
Time zone
UTC+01:00
Driving side
Right
Calling code
+236
Internet TLD
.cf
ISO 3166
CF
Established
1960
Highest point
Mont Ngaoui (1,410 m (4,626 ft))
National anthem
La Renaissance

Facts via Wikidata.

💹 Economy and developmentLow income
Human Dev. Index
#189 / 191
0.414
UNDP · 2023
GDP
#168 / 193
$3.1B
World Bank · 2025
GDP per capita
#191 / 193
$556
World Bank · 2025
GDP/capita (PPP)
#188 / 190
$1.3k
World Bank · 2025
GNI/capita (Atlas)
#190 / 192
$560
World Bank · 2025
Life expectancy
#192 / 194
57.7 yrs
World Bank · 2024
Median age
14.3 yrs
UN WPP · 2023
Urban population
#142 / 194
45%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. growth
3.4%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. density
#182 / 193
8/km²
World Bank · 2023
Foreign-born
#135 / 193
1.8%
World Bank · 2024
Rule of law
#154 / 175
0.12
V-Dem · 2025
Gini index
#140 / 166
43.0
World Bank · 2021
Internet users
#189 / 193
14%
World Bank · 2024
Inflation
#38 / 185
1.0%
World Bank · 2025
CO₂ per capita
#4 / 192
0.1 t
Global Carbon Budget · 2024
Renewable electricity
#9 / 186
100%
Ember · 2023

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 & Organisations3 full memberships

Political & Economic

Regional

Subregional

Full memberDashed border = Candidate / ApplicantItalic = Dialogue / Observer

🏛️ Leadership History11 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.

Félix Moloua✦ Current

2022Present

Prime Minister

Tenure: 4y 4m 26d

Henri-Marie Dondra

20212022

Prime Minister

Tenure: 7m 23d

Firmin Ngrébada

20192021

Prime Minister

Tenure: 2y 3m 19d

Simplice Sarandji

20162019

President

Tenure: 2y 10m 25d

Simplice Sarandji

20162019

Prime Minister

Tenure: 2y 10m 25d

Faustin-Archange Touadéra✦ Current

2016Present

President

Tenure: 10y 3m 3d

Faustin-Archange Touadéra

20162016

President

Tenure: 3d

Catherine Samba-Panza

20142016

President

Tenure: 2y 2m 7d

David Dacko

19791981

President

Tenure: 1y 11m 11d

Jean-Bedel Bokassa

19661976

President

Tenure: 10y 11m 3d

David Dacko

19601966

President

Tenure: 5y 4m 18d
📈 Power over timeThe Power Atlas →
Today
Minor#188 · 0.0%
3%5%8%10%2000
Power (headline share)Latent (material mass)Recognised (standing)
Central African Republic · 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.

⚔️ Conflicts since 19451 interstate war · click to expand
Combat deaths:

Bold = principal belligerent. Source: Wikipedia, “List of interstate wars since 1945.”

👥 Population over time
Population 2023
5.2m
#124 in the world
Since 1800
11×
from 479k
Peak
2023
at its largest now
Share of world
0.06%
0.05% in 1800
1.4m2.8m4.3m5.7m18001850190019502000
Central African Republic · 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 Central African Republic: 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
10.6m
95% band 6.7m to 16.2m
2100
18.8m
95% band 6.5m to 65.6m
2100 against 2025
3.41×
median still rising in 2100
17.2m34.4m51.7m68.9m1950197520002025205020752100

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
65k born · 42k died · 0 net migration
TFR 5.93 · life expectancy 35.4 · median age 21.2
1960
74k born · 43k died · +474 net migration
TFR 5.95 · life expectancy 39.6 · median age 19.3
1970
91k born · 42k died · -4k net migration
TFR 6.03 · life expectancy 45.2 · median age 17.8
1980
111k born · 42k died · -42k net migration
TFR 6.13 · life expectancy 49.8 · median age 17.4
1990
135k born · 47k died · +2k net migration
TFR 6.05 · life expectancy 49.9 · median age 16.8
2000
161k born · 64k died · +8k net migration
TFR 5.85 · life expectancy 46.6 · median age 16.0
2010
202k born · 71k died · -43k net migration
TFR 5.96 · life expectancy 46.9 · median age 15.6
2020
224k born · 67k died · -25k net migration
TFR 6.06 · life expectancy 50.6 · median age 14.4
Show all 16 decades
2030
274k born · 56k died · -18k net migration
TFR 5.25 · life expectancy 59.1 · median age 15.2
2040
286k born · 62k died · -20k net migration
TFR 4.15 · life expectancy 61.4 · median age 16.4
2050
304k born · 70k died · -16k net migration
TFR 3.36 · life expectancy 63.4 · median age 19.2
2060
315k born · 84k died · -18k net migration
TFR 2.86 · life expectancy 65.1 · median age 22.2
2070
309k born · 104k died · -14k net migration
TFR 2.52 · life expectancy 66.7 · median age 25.0
2080
301k born · 130k died · -17k net migration
TFR 2.30 · life expectancy 68.1 · median age 27.8
2090
293k born · 158k died · -19k net migration
TFR 2.15 · life expectancy 69.6 · median age 30.5
2100
277k born · 185k died · -18k net migration
TFR 2.03 · life expectancy 71.0 · median age 33.0

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

Central African Republic on the international stage. Click a card for the full record.