Lesotho β Country Profile & National Debt
An overview of Lesotho 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 Lesotho
The capital of Lesotho is Maseru. It has a population of approximately 2.1M. The country covers an area of 30,355 kmΒ². It is located in Southern Africa.
Geography
Lesotho is a country in Southern Africa, part of the Africa region. It covers an area of approximately 30,355 kmΒ². It shares land borders with South Africa, totalling 1 neighbour. It is a landlocked country with no direct sea access.
Demographics & Languages
Lesotho has a population of approximately 2,116,427 people. Population density is around 69.7 people per kmΒ². Its officially recognised languages include English and Sotho, totalling 2 languages. People from this country are referred to as Mosotho.
Economy Overview
As of 2024, Lesotho reports a nominal GDP of about $2.3 billion. Government debt stood at roughly 3.0% of GDP in 2020. The official currency is the Lesotho loti (LSL, symbol L). The current exchange rate is approximately 1 USD = 16.36 LSL.
Culture & Time
Lesotho operates on a single time zone (UTC+02:00). The local week is considered to start on Monday. Its country-code top-level domain (ccTLD) is.ls.
Government & Status
The capital of Lesotho is Maseru. 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 left. The international dialling code is +266. Its FIFA country code is LES, and its ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code is LS.
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 Γ 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.