Sudan

AfricaCapital city: KhartoumCapital metro: KhartoumPresident (Sovereignty Council Chairman): ⚠️ Abdel Fattah al-BurhanPrime Minister: Kamil Idris
2026 population
53.3M
Rank #29 globally
Area
1.9M km² (728k sq mi)
Metros tracked
16
21% of population in metros
Composite score
12.7
Rank #88 globally

population: UN projection (1 Jul 2026) · indicators as of 2026-09-05 · 16 metros tracked

🏙️ 16 tracked metros
16 metros
🗂️ States

18 entries listed under Sudan. Click any to see its metros and footprint.

18 total
📋 At a glance
Official languages
English, Arabic
Government
Federal republic
Legislature
National Legislature
Demonym
Sudanese
Time zone
UTC+02:00
Driving side
Right
Calling code
+249
Internet TLD
.sd
ISO 3166
SD
Established
1956
Highest point
Deriba Caldera (3,042 m (9,980 ft))
National anthem
Nahnu Jund Allah Jund Al-watan

Facts via Wikidata.

📰 In the news2 stories
Every story in the latest digest →
💹 Economy and developmentLow income
Human Dev. Index
#174 / 191
0.511
UNDP · 2023
GDP
#90 / 193
$60.2B
World Bank · 2025
GDP per capita
#171 / 193
$1.2k
World Bank · 2025
GDP/capita (PPP)
#179 / 190
$2.2k
World Bank · 2025
GNI/capita (Atlas)
#178 / 192
$900
World Bank · 2025
Life expectancy
#160 / 194
66.5 yrs
World Bank · 2024
Median age
18.3 yrs
UN WPP · 2023
Urban population
#161 / 194
35%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. growth
2.4%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. density
#155 / 193
27/km²
World Bank · 2023
Foreign-born
#90 / 193
4.8%
World Bank · 2024
Rule of law
#144 / 175
0.17
V-Dem · 2025
Gini index
#76 / 166
34.2
World Bank · 2014
Internet users
#182 / 193
19%
World Bank · 2017
Inflation
#183 / 185
138.8%
World Bank · 2022
CO₂ per capita
#28 / 192
0.4 t
Global Carbon Budget · 2024
Renewable electricity
#33 / 186
80%
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

Energy

Full memberDashed border = Candidate / ApplicantItalic = Dialogue / Observer

🏛️ Leadership History14 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.

Sovereignty Council / civil war

Kamil Idris✦ Current

2025Present

Prime Minister

Tenure: 2025-presentIndependent

⚠️ Abdel Fattah al-Burhan✦ Current

2019Present

President (Sovereignty Council Chairman)

Tenure: 2019-present (de facto head of state; 2021 coup; 2023- civil war)Military

2019 transition

Abdel Fattah al-Burhan

20192019

President (Transitional Military Council Chairman)

Tenure: 2019 (TMC)Military

Ahmed Awad Ibn Auf

20192019

President (Transitional Military Council Chairman)

Tenure: 2019 (1 day)Military

Bashir era

⚠️ Omar al-Bashir

19892019

President

Tenure: 1989-2019 (coup; ICC genocide charges, Darfur; ousted)National Congress Party

Third parliamentary era

Ahmed al-Mirghani

19861989

President (Supreme Council Chairman)

Tenure: 1986-1989DUP

Transitional military rule

Abdel Rahman Swar al-Dahab

19851986

President (Transitional Military Council Chairman)

Tenure: 1985-1986Military

Nimeiry era

Jaafar Nimeiry

19691985

President

Tenure: 1969-1985 (overthrown)Sudanese Socialist Union

Second parliamentary era

Ismail al-Azhari

19651969

President (Supreme Council Chairman)

Tenure: 1965-1969National Unionist Party

First military rule

Ibrahim Abboud

19581964

President (military, Supreme Council Chairman)

Tenure: 1958-1964Military

Independence & parliamentary era

Abdallah Khalil

19561958

Prime Minister

Tenure: 1956-1958Umma Party

Ismail al-Azhari

19561956

Prime Minister

Tenure: 1956National Unionist Party

Mahdist State

Abdallahi ibn Muhammad (the Khalifa)

18851898

Khalifa

Tenure: 13y 2m

Muhammad Ahmad (the Mahdi)

18811885

Mahdi

Tenure: 3y 11m
📈 Power over timeThe Power Atlas →
Today
Minor#82 · 0.1%
Latent vs recognised
Under-recognised: more mass than standing
3%5%8%10%2000
Power (headline share)Latent (material mass)Recognised (standing)
Sudan · share of world power, 1956–2026

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 19456 interstate wars · click to expand
Combat deaths: 316–1,485
Combat deaths: 235,000–250,000
Combat deaths: 12,336–19,264
Combat deaths:

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

👥 Population over time
Population 2023
50.0m
#30 in the world
Since 1800
13×
from 4.0m
Peak
2023
at its largest now
Share of world
0.62%
0.41% in 1800
13.3m26.6m40.0m53.3m18001850190019502000
Sudan · 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 Sudan: 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
85.2m
95% band 55.4m to 118m
2100
137m
95% band 53.5m to 330m
2100 against 2025
2.65×
median still rising in 2100
86.5m173m260m346m1950197520002025205020752100

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
297k born · 118k died · +3k net migration
TFR 6.66 · life expectancy 45.8 · median age 16.1
1960
399k born · 136k died · +2k net migration
TFR 6.66 · life expectancy 49.6 · median age 15.6
1970
571k born · 170k died · +4k net migration
TFR 6.99 · life expectancy 52.3 · median age 15.1
1980
771k born · 218k died · +209k net migration
TFR 6.59 · life expectancy 54.1 · median age 15.4
1990
964k born · 264k died · -255k net migration
TFR 6.07 · life expectancy 55.5 · median age 15.8
2000
1.1m born · 277k died · -165k net migration
TFR 5.60 · life expectancy 58.9 · median age 15.8
2010
1.3m born · 277k died · -339k net migration
TFR 5.14 · life expectancy 63.0 · median age 16.3
2020
1.6m born · 317k died · -66k net migration
TFR 4.54 · life expectancy 65.1 · median age 17.8
Show all 16 decades
2030
1.8m born · 357k died · -98k net migration
TFR 3.88 · life expectancy 67.6 · median age 19.4
2040
1.8m born · 430k died · -94k net migration
TFR 3.36 · life expectancy 69.3 · median age 21.4
2050
2.0m born · 520k died · -77k net migration
TFR 3.00 · life expectancy 70.9 · median age 24.0
2060
2.0m born · 637k died · -110k net migration
TFR 2.74 · life expectancy 72.3 · median age 26.5
2070
2.0m born · 789k died · -119k net migration
TFR 2.53 · life expectancy 73.8 · median age 28.9
2080
2.0m born · 951k died · -129k net migration
TFR 2.38 · life expectancy 75.2 · median age 31.1
2090
2.0m born · 1.1m died · -127k net migration
TFR 2.25 · life expectancy 76.7 · median age 33.3
2100
1.9m born · 1.2m died · -106k net migration
TFR 2.15 · life expectancy 78.1 · median age 35.5

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

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

National Teams Champions

Every major championship won by Sudan's national teams, newest first. 1 in total.

1970· 1970-02-16