Mauritania

AfricaCapital city: NouakchottCapital metro: NouakchottPresident: Mohamed Ould GhazouaniPrime Minister: Moctar Ould Djay
2026 population
4.9M
Rank #129 globally
Area
1.0M km² (398k sq mi)
Metros tracked
2
33% of population in metros
Composite score
1.0
Rank #188 globally

population: 2023 census (25 Dec 2023) · indicators as of 2026-09-05 · 2 metros tracked

🗺️ Geography2 metros

Mauritania metro footprint, shaded by composite tier.

Loading map…
2 polygons

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

🏙️ 2 tracked metros
2 metros
🗂️ Administrative subdivisions

13 entries listed under Mauritania across 2 types. Click any to see its metros and footprint.

13 total

Capital Cities (1)

📋 At a glance
Official language
Arabic
Legislature
National Assembly
Demonym
Mauritanian
Time zone
UTC±00:00
Driving side
Right
Calling code
+222
Internet TLD
.mr
ISO 3166
MR
Established
1960
Highest point
Kediet ej Jill (915 m (3,002 ft))
National anthem
National anthem of Mauritania

Facts via Wikidata.

💹 Economy and developmentLower middle income
Human Dev. Index
#161 / 191
0.563
UNDP · 2023
GDP
#152 / 193
$11.7B
World Bank · 2025
GDP per capita
#153 / 193
$2.2k
World Bank · 2025
GDP/capita (PPP)
#140 / 190
$7.7k
World Bank · 2025
GNI/capita (Atlas)
#149 / 192
$2.2k
World Bank · 2025
Life expectancy
#142 / 194
68.7 yrs
World Bank · 2024
Median age
17.1 yrs
UN WPP · 2023
Urban population
#104 / 194
61%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. growth
2.8%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. density
#184 / 193
5/km²
World Bank · 2023
Foreign-born
#105 / 193
3.8%
World Bank · 2024
Rule of law
#155 / 175
0.12
V-Dem · 2025
Gini index
#49 / 166
32.0
World Bank · 2019
Internet users
#150 / 193
46%
World Bank · 2024
Inflation
#50 / 185
1.5%
World Bank · 2025
CO₂ per capita
#54 / 192
1.0 t
Global Carbon Budget · 2024
Renewable electricity
#116 / 186
23%
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 History36 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.

Moctar Ould Djay✦ Current

2024Present

Prime Minister

Tenure: 1y 11m 1d

Mohamed Ould Bilal

20202024

Prime Minister

Tenure: 3y 11m 27d

Ismail Ould Bedde Ould Cheikh Sidiya

20192020

Prime Minister

Tenure: 1y 1d

Mohamed Ould Ghazouani✦ Current

2019Present

President

Tenure: 6y 11m 2d

Mohamed Salem Ould Béchir

20182019

Prime Minister

Tenure: 9m 7d

Yahya Ould Hademine

20142018

Prime Minister

Tenure: 4y 2m 9d

Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz

20092019

President

Tenure: 9y 11m 27d

Ba Mamadou Mbaré

20092009

President

Tenure: 3m 21d

Moulaye Ould Mohamed Laghdaf

20082014

Prime Minister

Tenure: 6y 6d

Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz

20082009

President

Tenure: 8m 9d

Yahya Ould Ahmed El Waghef

20082008

Prime Minister

Tenure: 3m 0d

Zeine Ould Zeidane

20072008

Prime Minister

Tenure: 1y 16d
Show all 36 leaders

Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi

20072008

President

Tenure: 1y 3m 18d

Sidi Mohamed Ould Boubacar

20052007

Prime Minister

Tenure: 1y 8m 13d

Ely Ould Mohamed Vall

20052007

President

Tenure: 1y 8m 16d

Sghair Ould M'Bareck

20032005

Prime Minister

Tenure: 2y 1m 1d

Cheikh El Avia Ould Mohamed Khouna

19982003

Prime Minister

Tenure: 4y 7m 20d

Mohamed Lemine Ould Guig

19971998

Prime Minister

Tenure: 10m 29d

Cheikh El Avia Ould Mohamed Khouna

19961997

Prime Minister

Tenure: 1y 11m 16d

Sidi Mohamed Ould Boubacar

19921996

Prime Minister

Tenure: 3y 8m 15d

Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya

19841992

President

Tenure: 7y 4m 6d

Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya

19841992

Prime Minister

Tenure: 7y 4m 6d

Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidalla

19841984

President

Tenure: 9m 4d

Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidalla

19841984

Prime Minister

Tenure: 9m 4d

Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya

19811984

President

Tenure: 2y 10m 12d

Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya

19811984

Prime Minister

Tenure: 2y 10m 12d

Sid Ahmed Ould Bneijara

19801981

Prime Minister

Tenure: 4m 13d

Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidalla

19801981

President

Tenure: 1y 3m 21d

Mohamed Mahmoud Ould Louly

19791980

President

Tenure: 7m 1d

Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidalla

19791979

President

Tenure: 3d

Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidalla

19791980

Prime Minister

Tenure: 1y 6m 11d

Ahmad Salim uld Sidi

19791979

Prime Minister

Tenure: 3d

Ahmed Ould Bouceif

19791979

Prime Minister

Tenure: 1m 21d

Mustafa Ould Salek

19781979

President

Tenure: 10m 21d

Moktar Ould Daddah

19601961

President

Tenure: 8m 23d

Moktar Ould Daddah

19601961

Prime Minister

Tenure: 8m 23d
📈 Power over timeThe Power Atlas →
Today
Minor#181 · 0.0%
3%5%8%10%2000
Power (headline share)Latent (material mass)Recognised (standing)
Mauritania · 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 19452 interstate wars · click to expand
Combat deaths: 200+
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic,Algeria
Combat deaths: 10,000–20,000

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

👥 Population over time
Population 2023
5.0m
#127 in the world
Since 1800
13×
from 383k
Peak
2023
at its largest now
Share of world
0.06%
0.04% in 1800
1.4m2.7m4.1m5.5m18001850190019502000
Mauritania · 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 Mauritania: 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
9.4m
95% band 7.4m to 11.7m
2100
17.1m
95% band 8.8m to 37.2m
2100 against 2025
3.22×
median still rising in 2100
9.8m19.5m29.3m39.0m1950197520002025205020752100

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
28k born · 15k died · -227 net migration
TFR 5.79 · life expectancy 38.4 · median age 16.7
1960
38k born · 17k died · -318 net migration
TFR 6.15 · life expectancy 43.6 · median age 17.7
1970
52k born · 18k died · -855 net migration
TFR 6.68 · life expectancy 50.5 · median age 17.0
1980
66k born · 21k died · -3k net migration
TFR 6.67 · life expectancy 53.2 · median age 15.8
1990
81k born · 21k died · -3k net migration
TFR 6.17 · life expectancy 58.1 · median age 16.0
2000
99k born · 23k died · -3k net migration
TFR 5.46 · life expectancy 61.0 · median age 16.6
2010
132k born · 24k died · +1k net migration
TFR 5.38 · life expectancy 65.7 · median age 16.7
2020
164k born · 29k died · -1k net migration
TFR 4.91 · life expectancy 66.8 · median age 16.8
Show all 16 decades
2030
192k born · 30k died · -8k net migration
TFR 4.24 · life expectancy 70.0 · median age 18.2
2040
213k born · 35k died · -10k net migration
TFR 3.60 · life expectancy 71.8 · median age 20.1
2050
231k born · 43k died · -12k net migration
TFR 3.14 · life expectancy 73.5 · median age 22.3
2060
242k born · 54k died · -13k net migration
TFR 2.79 · life expectancy 75.1 · median age 24.7
2070
249k born · 68k died · -13k net migration
TFR 2.56 · life expectancy 76.7 · median age 27.2
2080
251k born · 85k died · -14k net migration
TFR 2.37 · life expectancy 78.2 · median age 29.8
2090
250k born · 104k died · -16k net migration
TFR 2.24 · life expectancy 79.7 · median age 32.3
2100
245k born · 125k died · -15k net migration
TFR 2.13 · life expectancy 81.2 · median age 34.7

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

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