Madagascar
Antananarivo · East Africa
Madagascar is a country in Africa. Its capital city is Antananarivo, the official currency is the Malagasy Ariary, and the main language is Malagasy.
With a population of roughly 30.3 million people spread over 587,041 km², Madagascar is the 50th most populous country in the world and the 45th largest by area. That works out at about 52 people per square kilometre.
Madagascar has no land borders with any other country. Its largest urban centres are Antananarivo, Toamasina and Antsirabe. The highest point in the country is Maromokotro, at 2,876 metres.
For scale, it covers almost exactly the same area as Botswana, while its population is closest to that of Nepal.
- Capital
- Antananarivo
- Region
- East Africa
- Population
- 30,300,000
- Area
- 587,041 km²
- Currency
- Malagasy Ariary
- Main language
- Malagasy
- Highest point
- Maromokotro
2,876 m - Land borders
- 0
Madagascar: things worth knowing
- Madagascar is the fourth largest island in the world and separated from other landmasses around 88 million years ago.
- Roughly 90% of its wildlife exists nowhere else, including all of the world's lemur species.
- Malagasy belongs to the Austronesian family, most closely related to languages of Borneo rather than Africa.
Madagascar in context
Africa has 54 sovereign countries in total. Madagascar ranks 15th among them by population.
See the full list of Africa countries, or browse all 195 countries.