Madagascar — Country Profile
An overview of Madagascar 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 Madagascar
The capital of Madagascar is Antananarivo. It has a population of approximately 32.0M. The country covers an area of 587,041 km². It is located in Eastern Africa.
An island that split from Africa 200 million years ago, creating highly unique wildlife.
Geography
Madagascar is a country in Eastern Africa, part of the Africa region. It covers an area of approximately 587,041 km². It has direct access to the sea along its coastline.
Demographics & Languages
Madagascar has a population of approximately 31,964,956 people. Population density is around 54.5 people per km². Its officially recognised languages include French and Malagasy, totalling 2 languages. People from this country are referred to as Malagasy.
Economy Overview
As of 2025, Madagascar reports a nominal GDP of about $19.6 billion. The official currency is the Malagasy ariary (MGA, symbol Ar). The current exchange rate is approximately 1 USD = 4,293.51 MGA.
Culture & Time
Madagascar operates on a single time zone (Indian/Antananarivo). Its country-code top-level domain (ccTLD) is.mg.
Government & Status
The capital of Madagascar is Antananarivo. 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 +261. Its ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code is MG.
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.