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Central Africa

Central Africa features vast rainforests, rich natural resources, and the Congo River basin, the second-largest in the world.

8
Countries
169M
Population
$184B
Combined GDP

Countries in Central Africa

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Democratic Republic of Congo

Capital: Kinshasa
Population: 105.0M
GDP: $69B
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Cameroon

Capital: Yaoundé
Population: 29.3M
GDP: $48B
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Chad

Capital: N'Djamena
Population: 18.3M
GDP: $12B
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Republic of Congo

Capital: Brazzaville
Population: 6.3M
GDP: $15B
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Central African Republic

Capital: Bangui
Population: 5.9M
GDP: $2B
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Gabon

Capital: Libreville
Population: 2.4M
GDP: $22B
 🇬🇶

Equatorial Guinea

Capital: Malabo
Population: 1.7M
GDP: $12B
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São Tomé and Príncipe

Capital: São Tomé
Population: 0.2M
GDP: $0B

About Central Africa

Central Africa covers the equatorial heart of the continent — the Congo Basin and its surrounding plateaus and uplands. The grouping is small in country count but enormous in area and ecological importance: Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Sao Tome and Príncipe and Angola together host the world's second-largest tropical rainforest.

People and languages

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is by far the most populous country in the region — its population alone is roughly the same as the rest of Central Africa combined. French is the most widely-shared official language, the legacy of French and Belgian colonial administration; Spanish (Equatorial Guinea) and Portuguese (Angola, São Tomé) round out the Romance-language picture, alongside Arabic in Chad and a vast number of indigenous Bantu languages used in everyday life. Population is concentrated in the capital cities — Kinshasa, Luanda, Yaoundé, Brazzaville — with much of the rural interior covered by tropical forest.

Economy

The regional economy is heavily resource-dependent: oil and gas in Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Republic of the Congo; copper, cobalt and other strategic minerals in the south-eastern reaches of the DRC; timber and cocoa elsewhere. Most countries share the Central African CFA franc, pegged to the euro, which provides a degree of monetary stability but limits exchange-rate flexibility. The Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) is the principal regional body.

How to read this regional view

Country cards follow. For the editorial approach we take when reconciling figures from multiple sources, see methodology; for citation formats see how to cite.

Last reviewed: 28 April 2026. Figures on the country cards are revised when underlying source organisations publish new releases.