Mauritania — Country Profile
An overview of Mauritania 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 Mauritania
The capital of Mauritania is Nouakchott. It has a population of approximately 5.2M. The country covers an area of 1,030,700 km². It is located in Western Africa.
Geography
Mauritania is a country in Western Africa, part of the Africa region. It covers an area of approximately 1,030,700 km². It shares land borders with Algeria, Mali, Senegal, and Western Sahara, totalling 4 neighbours.
Demographics & Languages
Mauritania has a population of approximately 5,169,395 people. Population density is around 5.0 people per km². Its officially recognised languages include Arabic, totalling 1 language. People from this country are referred to as Mauritanian.
Economy Overview
As of 2025, Mauritania reports a nominal GDP of about $11.7 billion. The official currency is the Mauritanian ouguiya (MRU, symbol UM). The current exchange rate is approximately 1 USD = 40.1 MRU.
Culture & Time
Mauritania operates on a single time zone (Africa/Nouakchott). Its country-code top-level domain (ccTLD) is.mr.
Government & Status
The capital of Mauritania is Nouakchott. 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 +222. Its ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code is MR.
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.