How Many Countries Are in Africa? 54 States — the Full List by Region

By Serdar Freimoser · Updated 26 October 2026 · Guide · 6 minute read · Auf Deutsch lesen

Africa has 54 states that are members of the United Nations – more than any other continent. The African Union arrives at 55 because it counts Western Sahara; if you add the territories of European states such as Réunion, Mayotte or the Canary Islands, you land at around 60. Below is every country by region, exactly as it sits on our globe.

The number: 54, 55 or 57?

As with the question of how many countries there are in the world, the answer depends on who is counting. The three numbers you will meet:

For everyday use: 54 countries, 55 with Western Sahara. If you tick off countries on a map you will often see 57 shapes – because maps show territories, not memberships.

Every country in Africa by region

The grouping follows the UN Statistics Division (M49) and is the same as on our globe. The one difference: the UN lists South Sudan under Eastern Africa, our map under Middle Africa, where it lies geographically. Territories without UN membership are marked.

Northern Africa (6 states + Western Sahara (not a UN member))

• 🇩🇿 Algeria
• 🇪🇬 Egypt
• 🇱🇾 Libya
• 🇲🇦 Morocco
• 🇸🇩 Sudan
• 🇹🇳 Tunisia
• 🇪🇭 Western Sahara – not a UN member

Western Africa (16 states + Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha (not a UN member))

• 🇧🇯 Benin
• 🇧🇫 Burkina Faso
• 🇨🇻 Cabo Verde
• 🇨🇮 Côte d'Ivoire
• 🇬🇲 Gambia
• 🇬🇭 Ghana
• 🇬🇳 Guinea
• 🇬🇼 Guinea-Bissau
• 🇱🇷 Liberia
• 🇲🇱 Mali
• 🇲🇷 Mauritania
• 🇳🇪 Niger
• 🇳🇬 Nigeria
• 🇸🇭 Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha – not a UN member
• 🇸🇳 Senegal
• 🇸🇱 Sierra Leone
• 🇹🇬 Togo

Middle Africa (10 states)

• 🇦🇴 Angola
• 🇨🇲 Cameroon
• 🇨🇫 Central African Republic
• 🇹🇩 Chad
• 🇨🇩 Democratic Republic of the Congo
• 🇬🇶 Equatorial Guinea
• 🇬🇦 Gabon
• 🇨🇬 Republic of the Congo
• 🇸🇸 South Sudan
• 🇸🇹 São Tomé and Príncipe

Eastern Africa (17 states + British Indian Ocean Territory (not a UN member))

• 🇮🇴 British Indian Ocean Territory – not a UN member
• 🇧🇮 Burundi
• 🇰🇲 Comoros
• 🇩🇯 Djibouti
• 🇪🇷 Eritrea
• 🇪🇹 Ethiopia
• 🇰🇪 Kenya
• 🇲🇬 Madagascar
• 🇲🇼 Malawi
• 🇲🇺 Mauritius
• 🇲🇿 Mozambique
• 🇷🇼 Rwanda
• 🇸🇨 Seychelles
• 🇸🇴 Somalia
• 🇹🇿 Tanzania
• 🇺🇬 Uganda
• 🇿🇲 Zambia
• 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe

Southern Africa (5 states)

• 🇧🇼 Botswana
• 🇸🇿 Eswatini
• 🇱🇸 Lesotho
• 🇳🇦 Namibia
• 🇿🇦 South Africa

The edge cases

• Western Sahara – disputed since 1975 between Morocco and the Polisario independence movement; the UN lists it as a non-self-governing territory. Its own ISO code, EH, is why almost every travel app shows it as a separate area.
• Egypt – Africa's only transcontinental state: the Sinai Peninsula lies in Asia. Egypt is counted as African everywhere.
• Réunion and Mayotte – French overseas departments in the Indian Ocean, so EU territory using the euro. Geographically Africa, politically France; own ISO codes (RE, YT), but not states.
• Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla – Spanish. The Canaries lie off Morocco, the two cities on the African mainland. In country counts they belong to Spain.
• Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha – a British overseas territory in the South Atlantic, Napoleon's place of exile. Own ISO code SH.
• British Indian Ocean Territory – the Chagos Archipelago with the Diego Garcia military base, disputed between the United Kingdom and Mauritius, which has claimed it for decades.
• Somaliland – self-governing since 1991 but recognised by no UN member, so it appears in no count and on no standard map as a country of its own.

Africa in numbers

What counts as visited – and how to really "have" Africa

The rule is the same as everywhere: under the strict rule a country counts after a night's stay, under the middle rule once you have left the transit area, under the loose rule even on a layover – the three rules in detail. Africa adds a second question: whoever has seen Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt has three countries but a single region. The continent stretches from the Sahara to the Cape, and a beach holiday in Hurghada says as much about Kinshasa as Lisbon does about Helsinki.

That is why the title you unlock for Africa in Love the World is called "Africa Is Not a Country": five countries from at least three of the five regions above. On our globe each of the 57 shapes gets its own entry stamp in the passport – Western Sahara and Saint Helena included, because maps show territories, not memberships. See how the app works, or read the comparison of map apps (German) if you only want to count countries.

Sources (retrieved 26 October 2026): UN member states · UN Statistics Division M49 (regions) · African Union: member states · UN: non-self-governing territories · Natural Earth (the app's map data)

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