Country · Africa
Sudan
Republic of the Sudan
Sudan is a country in Northern Africa. Its capital city is Khartoum. About 41.8 million people live there, in an area of 1 886 068 square kilometres.
Picture credit: walter callens (CC BY 2.0) · Jovan Smiljković (CC BY 4.0) · Nazarkamal (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Abdalla muhammed noor (CC BY-SA 4.0) · عاصم الرشيد التوم (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Sudan?
Sudan lies in Northern Africa, on the continent of Africa.
It sits in the northern half of the world, roughly 1 670 km from the equator.
Its coastline is about 853 km long.
It shares a border with 7 countries: Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Libya and South Sudan.
How big is Sudan?
Sudan covers 1 886 068 square kilometres.
That is about 5.3 times the size of Germany.
Among the world's countries that makes it the 15th largest.
Spread out evenly, that is roughly 22.2 people per square kilometre.
Who lives in Sudan?
About 41.8 million people live in Sudan.
That is the 35th biggest population in the world.
People here speak Arabic and English.
They pay with the Sudanese pound (PT).
On average, people born here can expect to live about 57 years.
The land of Sudan
The land in Sudan sits on average 568 metres above sea level.
Its coast runs for about 853 km. Walking it end to end, at twenty kilometres a day, would take roughly 43 days.
It lies inside the tropics, which is the single biggest reason its weather is the way it is.
What makes Sudan different?
A dish the country is known for: Ful medames.
Websites from here often end in .sd.
Sudan and the rest of the world
Out of every thousand people alive on Earth, about 6 live in Sudan.
It takes up about 1.4 % of all the land that countries stand on.
Within Africa it is the 3rd largest of 54 countries, and the 10th most populated.
That is emptier than the world average of roughly 60 people per square kilometre.
Sudan and its neighbours
Sudan is about 1.1 times the size of Libya, its largest neighbour.
More people live in Sudan than in Libya — 41.8 million against 6.7 million.
Nature and animals
Of the animals on this site, 1 live wild in Sudan: Dromedary. The longest river is the Nile, running 6 650 km from source to mouth.
Photographs from Wikimedia Commons under free licences — every credit is on the page itself and in the picture credits.
Where this country lands in the record lists
Questions children ask
What is the capital of Sudan?
The capital of Sudan is Khartoum. It is the city where the country's government works from.
How many people live in Sudan?
About 41.8 million people live in Sudan, which makes it the 35th most populated country in the world. (Source: World Bank, 2018.)
Which countries border Sudan?
Sudan borders Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Libya and South Sudan — 7 neighbours in total.
How big is Sudan?
Sudan covers 1 886 068 square kilometres, making it the 15th largest country in the world. That is about 5.3 times the size of Germany.
Which continent is Sudan in?
Sudan is in Africa, in the part called Northern Africa.
Where these numbers come from
Borders and outlines: Natural Earth. Names, capitals, areas, languages and currencies: ISO 3166 data (world-countries). Population: World Bank, 2018. Every derived figure on this page (ranks, density, distance from the equator) is calculated from those values.
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