Benin — Country Profile
An overview of Benin covering geography, demographics, economy, culture, political status, and practical information, sourced from World Bank and REST Countries open data.
These figures are estimates based on public statistics and may differ from actual values.
About Benin
The capital of Benin is Porto-Novo. It has a population of approximately 14.5M. The country covers an area of 112,622 km². It is located in Western Africa.
Geography
Benin is a country in Western Africa, part of the Africa region. It covers an area of approximately 112,622 km². It shares land borders with Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, and Togo, totalling 4 neighbours.
Demographics & Languages
Benin has a population of approximately 14,462,724 people. Population density is around 128.4 people per km². Its officially recognised languages include French, totalling 1 language. People from this country are referred to as Beninese.
Economy Overview
As of 2025, Benin reports a nominal GDP of about $24.6 billion. The official currency is the West African CFA franc (XOF, symbol Fr). The current exchange rate is approximately 1 USD = 574.29 XOF.
Culture & Time
Benin operates on a single time zone (Africa/Porto-Novo). Its country-code top-level domain (ccTLD) is.bj.
Government & Status
The capital of Benin is Porto-Novo. It is internationally recognised as an independent sovereign state. The country is a member state of the United Nations.
Practical Information
Traffic drives on the right. The international dialling code is +229. Its ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code is BJ.
Data Sources & Methodology
GDP and debt-to-GDP figures on this page are pulled from the most recent available year of World Bank open statistics. The real-time debt estimate is computed by multiplying total debt (GDP × debt ratio) by World Bank's real interest rate (or a 4% fallback when unavailable) and dividing across each second of a year. Exchange rates refresh hourly via open.er-api.com, and country-level metadata such as languages, time zones, borders, and domains is fetched from REST Countries every 24 hours. All values are estimates derived from public datasets and may differ from official figures.