Djibouti

AfricaCapital city: DjiboutiCapital metro: DjiboutiPresident: Ismail Omar Guelleh
2026 population
1.1M
Rank #164 globally
Area
23k km² (9k sq mi)
Metros tracked
1
58% of population in metros
Composite score
3.1
Rank #160 globally

population: 2024 census (20 May 2024) · indicators as of 5 Sep 2026 · 1 metros tracked

🗺️ Geography1 metro

Djibouti metro footprint, shaded by composite tier.

Loading map…
1 polygons

Select a metro for its rank and a link to its page. Boundaries derived from Overture Maps administrative divisions; metros without source coverage are omitted.

🏙️ 1 tracked metro
1 metros
#697Djibouti★ Capital▲ Largest
Djibouti · 620K · Emerging Metro
3.1
🗂️ Administrative subdivisions

6 entries listed under Djibouti across 2 types. Select any to see its metros and footprint.

6 total

Cities (1)

📋 At a glance
Official languages
French, Arabic
Legislature
National Assembly
Demonym
Djiboutian
Time zone
UTC+03:00
Driving side
Right
Calling code
+253
Internet TLD
.dj
ISO 3166
DJ
Established
1977
Highest point
Mousa Ali (2,028 m (6,654 ft))
National anthem
Djibouti

Facts via Wikidata.

🗣️ Languages of Djibouti

French first; 3 languages share the country; 2 official.

LanguageShareStatus
French50%Official
Afar42%None
Somali41%None
Standard Arabic7.3%Official

Shares count first and second language, so they overlap and can add past 100%.

Effective languages
1.7
Official-language gap
50%
French is spoken by 50%

Djibouti on the languages board · Language power

💹 Economy and developmentLower middle income
Human Dev. Index
#173 / 191
0.513
UNDP · 2023
GDP
#162 / 193
$4.6B
World Bank · 2025
GDP per capita
#133 / 193
$3.9k
World Bank · 2025
GDP/capita (PPP)
#137 / 190
$8.5k
World Bank · 2025
GNI/capita (Atlas)
#128 / 192
$4.0k
World Bank · 2025
Life expectancy
#164 / 194
66.2 yrs
World Bank · 2024
Median age
24.4 yrs
UN WPP · 2023
Urban population
#62 / 194
73%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. growth
1.3%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. density
#134 / 193
50/km² (129/mi²)
World Bank · 2023
Foreign-born
#58 / 193
10.8%
World Bank · 2024
Rule of law
#124 / 175
0.29
V-Dem · 2025
Gini index
#131 / 166
41.6
World Bank · 2017
Internet users
#130 / 193
65%
World Bank · 2024
Inflation
★ #8 / 185
-0.3%
World Bank · 2025
CO₂ per capita
#34 / 192
0.5 t
Global Carbon Budget · 2024
Renewable electricity
#92 / 186
35%
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 History2 leaders · click to expand
Ismail Omar Guelleh✦ Current
President · 27y 1m
1999–Present
Hassan Gouled Aptidon
President · 21y 10m
1977–1999
📈 Power over timeThe Power Atlas →
Today
Minor#155 · 0.0%
3%5%8%10%2000
Power (headline share)Latent (material mass)Recognised (standing)

The power line 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
1.2m
#161 in the world
Since 1800
50×
from 23k
Peak
2023
at its largest now
Share of world
0.01%
0.00% in 1800
300k600k900k1.2m18001850190019502000

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 Djibouti: 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
1.5m
95% band 817k to 3.4m
2100
1.8m
95% band 465k to 10.1m
2100 against 2025
1.55×
median still rising in 2100
2.6m5.3m7.9m10.6m1950197520002025205020752100
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
3k born · 1k died · +533 net migration
TFR 6.82 · life expectancy 40.7 · median age 15.6
1960
4k born · 2k died · +886 net migration
TFR 6.85 · life expectancy 43.4 · median age 16.6
1970
7k born · 3k died · +5k net migration
TFR 6.88 · life expectancy 47.5 · median age 16.7
1980
14k born · 4k died · +10k net migration
TFR 6.46 · life expectancy 52.0 · median age 16.1
1990
22k born · 6k died · +50k net migration
TFR 5.93 · life expectancy 55.5 · median age 16.8
2000
25k born · 8k died · +6k net migration
TFR 4.60 · life expectancy 56.7 · median age 18.9
2010
24k born · 8k died · +2k net migration
TFR 3.43 · life expectancy 60.7 · median age 20.7
2020
24k born · 9k died · +1k net migration
TFR 2.75 · life expectancy 64.2 · median age 23.5

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

Djibouti on the international stage. Select a card for the full record.