Western Africa
Mali
Capital Bamako · 25 million people
Population25 million
Area1,240,190 km²
People per km²20
Rank by population19 of 54
Mali at a glance
Mali is in Western Africa. Its capital is Bamako[1]. About 25 million people live there[3], on 1,240,190 km²[4]: number 19 by population and number 8 by area of the 54 countries on this site. The sentences and figures on this page are calculated from those sources; the writing about places and people is on the cards and stories below.
- Capital
- Bamako[1]
- Region
- Western Africa[2]
- Population
- 25,198,821, 2025 estimate[3]
- Area
- 1,240,190 km², including inland water[4]
- Government
- semi-presidential republic[5]
- Languages marked official by the Factbook
- Bambara[5]
- African languages mentioned by the Factbook
- Fula, Dogon, Soninke, Mandinka, Zarma-Songhay, Tamazight (Berber), Senufo, Bobo[5]
- Religion, share of people
- Muslim 94%, Christian 3%, no religion 3% (2018 estimate)[5]
Places in Mali
Stories that touch Mali
- History · 3 min readMansa Musa and the gold nobody could countA king from Mali set out for Mecca in 1324 and drew the attention of the Muslim world. How much of the story is record, and how much is legend?Mali
- Myths · 1 min readWas Africa's history only ever spoken?The oral tradition is real and rich. But writing has a long history on the continent too, from the Ge'ez script of Aksum to the manuscripts of Timbuktu.Ethiopia · Eritrea · Mali
Keep exploring
- Mali in the table of all 54 countries, to compare its figures.
- Society: faith, government and languages side by side.
- The quiz, with questions on countries, history and food.
What readers add
No local voice on Mali yet.Notes are added once the author has agreed to publication, and are read by people who know the subject afterwards.
- Population is an estimate for 2025 and area a 2023 value; neither is a census figure.
- Government, languages and religions are the World Factbook's words and carry its own estimate years. Language and religion groupings are ours and flatten real differences.
- This page has no history, daily life or economy of its own yet. Those belong to the place cards and stories, with their own sources and local voices.
Sources
- Institutional[1] Country metadata: capital city. World Bank. api.worldbank.org retrieved 6 Oct 2026
One capital per country. The World Bank writes some names without accents; they are restored here. - Institutional[2] Standard country or area codes for statistical use (M49). United Nations Statistics Division. unstats.un.org retrieved 6 Oct 2026
Source of the five African subregions. The classification is for statistical convenience and implies no assumption about political affiliation. - Institutional[3] Population, total (SP.POP.TOTL). World Bank. data.worldbank.org retrieved 6 Oct 2026
Most recent value per country, 2025, obtained through the World Bank API. Estimates, not census counts. - Institutional[4] Surface area, sq. km (AG.SRF.TOTL.K2). World Bank. data.worldbank.org retrieved 6 Oct 2026
Most recent value per country, 2023, obtained through the World Bank API. Total area including inland water. - Institutional · to verify[5] The World Factbook: Government type, Languages, Religions (africa/*.json). CIA, via the factbook/factbook.json copy on GitHub. github.com retrieved 7 Oct 2026
Public-domain text copied unchanged. The copy does not say which edition it holds, and each figure carries its own estimate year in the text. Shares are estimates from censuses or surveys of different years; official languages are as the Factbook records them. - Institutional[6] African Union member states. African Union. au.int retrieved 7 Oct 2026
Lists 55 member states by region, including the Sahrawi Republic. The list does not show suspensions. - Institutional[7] African Union overview. African Union. au.int retrieved 7 Oct 2026
Gives the founding of the OAU (May 1963) and the launch of the African Union (July 2002).