Gabon

AfricaCapital city: LibrevilleCapital metro: LibrevillePresident: Brice Clotaire Oligui NguemaPrime Minister: Raymond Ndong Sima
2026 population
2.5M
Rank #145 globally
Area
268k km² (103k sq mi)
Metros tracked
3
46% of population in metros
Composite score
3.2
Rank #157 globally

population: Natl annual projection (1 Jul 2025) · indicators as of 5 Sep 2026 · 3 metros tracked

🗺️ Geography3 metros

Gabon metro footprint, shaded by composite tier.

Loading map…
3 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.

🏙️ 3 tracked metros
3 metros
#772Libreville★ Capital▲ Largest
Estuaire · 873K · Emerging Metro
2.6
Ogooué-Maritime · 141K · Local Metro
0.3
Haut-Ogooué · 130K · Local Metro
0.3
🗂️ Provinces

9 entries listed under Gabon. Select any to see its metros and footprint.

9 total
📋 At a glance
Official language
French
Government
Republic
Legislature
Parliament of Gabon
Demonym
Gabonese
Time zones
UTC+01:00, West Africa Time
Driving side
Right
Calling code
+241
Internet TLD
.ga
ISO 3166
GA
Established
1960
Highest point
Mont Bengoué (1,070 m (3,510 ft))
National anthem
La Concorde

Facts via Wikidata.

🗣️ Languages of Gabon

French first; one language carries the country; 1 official.

LanguageShareStatus
French63%Official
Punu9%None

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

Effective languages
2.5
Official-language gap
37%
French is spoken by 63%

Gabon on the languages board · Language power

💹 Economy and developmentUpper middle income
Human Dev. Index
#108 / 191
0.733
UNDP · 2023
GDP
#131 / 193
$21.4B
World Bank · 2025
GDP per capita
#91 / 193
$8.3k
World Bank · 2025
GDP/capita (PPP)
#88 / 190
$22.2k
World Bank · 2025
GNI/capita (Atlas)
#89 / 192
$8.1k
World Bank · 2025
Life expectancy
#143 / 194
68.5 yrs
World Bank · 2024
Median age
21.5 yrs
UN WPP · 2023
Urban population
#15 / 194
92%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. growth
2.1%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. density
#180 / 193
10/km² (25/mi²)
World Bank · 2023
Foreign-born
#31 / 193
17.7%
World Bank · 2024
Rule of law
#103 / 175
0.42
V-Dem · 2025
Gini index
#105 / 166
38.0
World Bank · 2017
Internet users
#122 / 193
69%
World Bank · 2024
Inflation
#53 / 185
1.8%
World Bank · 2025
CO₂ per capita
#82 / 192
2.1 t
Global Carbon Budget · 2024
Renewable electricity
#90 / 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 & Organisations6 full memberships

Political & Economic

Subregional

Energy

Full memberDashed border = Candidate / ApplicantItalic = Dialogue / Observer

🏛️ Leadership History6 leaders · click to expand
Raymond Ndong Sima✦ Current
Prime Minister · 2y 9m 26d
2023–Present
Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema✦ Current
President · 2y 10m 3d
2023–Present
Ali Bongo Ondimba
President · 13y 10m 14d
2009–2023
Rose Francine Rogombe
President · 4m 6d
2009–2009
Omar Bongo
President · 41y 6m 6d
1967–2009
Léon M'ba
President · 6y 9m 15d
1961–1967
📈 Power over timeThe Power Atlas →
Today
Minor#152 · 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.

⚔️ Wars and conflicts1 interstate war · click to expand
Combat deaths: 45,000+

Bold = principal belligerent. Source: Wikipedia, “List of interstate wars since 1945.” Figures marked “COW battle deaths” are Correlates of War battle-death counts, which run lower than total deaths.

👥 Population over time
Population 2023
2.5m
#145 in the world
Since 1800
16×
from 158k
Peak
2023
at its largest now
Share of world
0.03%
0.02% in 1800
662k1.3m2.0m2.6m18001850190019502000

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 Gabon: 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
4.1m
95% band 3.3m to 5.0m
2100
6.9m
95% band 3.2m to 14.3m
2100 against 2025
2.66×
median still rising in 2100
3.8m7.5m11.3m15.0m1950197520002025205020752100
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
14k born · 11k died · 0 net migration
TFR 3.95 · life expectancy 39.3 · median age 27.1
1960
16k born · 11k died · 0 net migration
TFR 4.42 · life expectancy 46.4 · median age 26.2
1970
21k born · 10k died · +2k net migration
TFR 5.10 · life expectancy 52.7 · median age 23.1
1980
29k born · 10k died · +990 net migration
TFR 5.66 · life expectancy 57.9 · median age 19.9
1990
37k born · 11k died · +990 net migration
TFR 5.46 · life expectancy 60.7 · median age 17.9
2000
43k born · 12k died · +3k net migration
TFR 4.47 · life expectancy 61.8 · median age 18.2
2010
57k born · 14k died · +17k net migration
TFR 4.15 · life expectancy 64.7 · median age 20.2
2020
69k born · 16k died · +2k net migration
TFR 3.83 · life expectancy 67.1 · median age 21.5

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

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