Country Information
| Official Name: | Equatorial Guinea |
| Capital: | Malabo |
| Area: | 28,051 km² |
| Languages: | Spanish, French, Portuguese |
| Independence: | 1968-10-12 |
| Leader: | Teodoro Obiang |
About Equatorial Guinea
Equatorial Guinea is located in the equatorial heart of the continent, dominated by the Congo Basin rainforest and the river system that drains it. Its capital is Malabo, and it covers roughly 28,051 square kilometres. The population of about 1.7 million makes it one of 9 countries that make up Central Africa. Equatorial Guinea is one of the smaller members of the Central Africa group by population. The country marks its modern statehood from 1968.
Central Africa contains the second-largest tropical rainforest on Earth and substantial mineral and hydrocarbon reserves. French is the most widely-used official language across the region, alongside Portuguese and Spanish in specific countries, and the Central African CFA franc is shared by most of the bloc. Economies are heavily resource-dependent, with the Democratic Republic of the Congo as by far the most populous member. Within that setting, The working official languages include spanish, french and portuguese, and the legal-tender currency is the Central African CFA franc (XAF) (see Africa's currency arrangements).
The figures above are sourced from World Bank, IMF, UN agency and national statistics-office releases. Reported nominal GDP for Equatorial Guinea is about US$13 billion. Population growth is currently estimated at about 2.8% per year, which influences how quickly the labour force, school cohorts and urban demand shift over a decade. The longer-form note on what growth rate hides is on reading African demographic data. At an urbanisation rate of about 74%, Equatorial Guinea is a majority-urban country, where most residents live in towns and cities. Life expectancy at birth is reported at 59.8 years, and the adult literacy rate at about 95% — figures that summarise decades of investment in health systems and basic education.
How to read these figures
Country indicators on Africa Center are point-in-time estimates that are revised when new census or survey data is published. GDP is reported here as nominal US dollars at current exchange rates, which is the format most widely used by international institutions for cross-country comparison; for the difference between this and the purchasing-power-parity variant, and why GDP rankings reorder between releases, see reading African economic data. Per-capita figures divide GDP by population and are most useful when read alongside the absolute total. Definitions for every indicator are in the glossary; the rules we follow when sources disagree are written up in the methodology.
For the full regional context — neighbouring economies, shared languages, regional organisations — see the Central Africa overview. To compare Equatorial Guinea with other countries on the continent, browse the full country directory or open the interactive map.
Last reviewed: 28 April 2026. Figures are revised when underlying source organisations publish new releases.