Gambia

AfricaCapital city: BanjulCapital metro: BanjulPresident: Adama Barrow
2026 population
2.4M
Rank #146 globally
Area
11k km² (4k sq mi)
Metros tracked
1
41% of population in metros
Composite score
0.6
Rank #203 globally

population: Census (1 May 2024) · indicators as of 2026-09-05 · 1 metros tracked

🗺️ Geography1 metro

Gambia 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
#1728Banjul★ Capital▲ Largest
0.6
🗂️ Local Government Areas

8 entries listed under Gambia. Click any to see its metros and footprint.

8 total
📋 At a glance
Official language
English
Currency
Dalasi (GMD)
Government
Republic
Legislature
National Assembly of The Gambia
Demonym
Gambian
Time zone
UTC±00:00
Driving side
Right
Calling code
+220
Internet TLD
.gm
ISO 3166
GM
Established
1965
National anthem
For The Gambia Our Homeland

Facts via Wikidata.

💹 Economy and developmentLow income
Human Dev. Index
#168 / 191
0.524
UNDP · 2023
GDP
#171 / 193
$2.6B
World Bank · 2025
GDP per capita
#180 / 193
$919
World Bank · 2025
GDP/capita (PPP)
#167 / 190
$3.7k
World Bank · 2025
GNI/capita (Atlas)
#177 / 192
$930
World Bank · 2025
Life expectancy
#165 / 194
66.1 yrs
World Bank · 2024
Median age
18.2 yrs
UN WPP · 2023
Urban population
#90 / 194
65%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. growth
2.2%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. density
#32 / 193
267/km²
World Bank · 2023
Foreign-born
#69 / 193
8.6%
World Bank · 2024
Rule of law
#52 / 175
0.80
V-Dem · 2025
Gini index
#112 / 166
38.8
World Bank · 2020
Internet users
#145 / 193
49%
World Bank · 2024
Inflation
#165 / 185
11.6%
World Bank · 2024
CO₂ per capita
#24 / 192
0.3 t
Global Carbon Budget · 2024
Renewable electricity
#183 / 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 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.

Adama Barrow✦ Current

2017Present

President

Tenure: 9y 5m

Yahya Jammeh

19942017

President

Tenure: 22y 5m

Dawda Jawara

19701994

President

Tenure: 24y 2m
📈 Power over timeThe Power Atlas →
Today
Minor#195 · 0.0%
3%5%8%10%2000
Power (headline share)Latent (material mass)Recognised (standing)
Gambia · share of world power, 1965–2026

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
2.7m
#144 in the world
Since 1800
26×
from 103k
Peak
2023
at its largest now
Share of world
0.03%
0.01% in 1800
721k1.4m2.2m2.9m18001850190019502000
Gambia · 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 Gambia: 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
4.3m
95% band 3.5m to 5.5m
2100
5.7m
95% band 2.5m to 13.4m
2100 against 2025
2.02×
median still rising in 2100
3.5m7.0m10.5m14.0m1950197520002025205020752100

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
15k born · 10k died · +2k net migration
TFR 6.35 · life expectancy 31.2 · median age 17.0
1960
20k born · 12k died · +2k net migration
TFR 6.25 · life expectancy 34.6 · median age 18.3
1970
25k born · 13k died · +3k net migration
TFR 6.26 · life expectancy 39.5 · median age 18.4
1980
34k born · 15k died · +5k net migration
TFR 6.41 · life expectancy 45.0 · median age 17.2
1990
50k born · 17k died · +11k net migration
TFR 6.25 · life expectancy 51.3 · median age 16.1
2000
60k born · 16k died · -4k net migration
TFR 5.72 · life expectancy 56.9 · median age 15.4
2010
75k born · 16k died · -2k net migration
TFR 5.56 · life expectancy 61.2 · median age 16.3
2020
79k born · 17k died · -2k net migration
TFR 4.25 · life expectancy 64.4 · median age 17.6
Show all 16 decades
2030
83k born · 19k died · -3k net migration
TFR 3.33 · life expectancy 67.2 · median age 19.9
2040
85k born · 23k died · -2k net migration
TFR 2.71 · life expectancy 68.8 · median age 23.1
2050
84k born · 28k died · -2k net migration
TFR 2.38 · life expectancy 70.2 · median age 26.1
2060
81k born · 34k died · -2k net migration
TFR 2.18 · life expectancy 71.5 · median age 29.2
2070
79k born · 42k died · -2k net migration
TFR 2.03 · life expectancy 72.7 · median age 32.0
2080
75k born · 51k died · -2k net migration
TFR 1.94 · life expectancy 74.0 · median age 34.7
2090
71k born · 59k died · -1k net migration
TFR 1.87 · life expectancy 75.2 · median age 37.0
2100
67k born · 65k died · -1k net migration
TFR 1.82 · life expectancy 76.5 · median age 38.9

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

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