Azerbaijan 🇦🇿

Azerbaijan is a country in Asia with a population of 10,358,074. Its capital is Baku. The official currency is AZN, and the main languages are Azerbaijani.

Quick facts

Capital: Baku
Continent: Asia
Population: 10,358,074
Area: 86,600 km²
Density: 120 people per km²
Currency: AZN
Languages: Azerbaijani
ISO code: AZ

Where Azerbaijan sits

Azerbaijan 🇦🇿 is one of 48 countries in Asia, with its capital at Baku. It covers 86,600 square kilometres — 112th in the world — and is home to about 10,358,074 people, 91st globally.

The countries it shares a continent with include China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Bangladesh. If you are learning geography region by region — which works far better than alphabetically, because memory for places is spatial — those are the ones to learn alongside it.

How Azerbaijan compares

Raw figures are hard to hold on their own, so it helps to anchor them. In population, Azerbaijan sits closest to Greece and Honduras. In land area, its nearest counterparts are Serbia and Austria.

At 120 people per square kilometre it is about 2.0 times the world average of 59.4. It ranks higher by population than by area, so it is more crowded than its size alone suggests.

Azerbaijani is listed as official in Azerbaijan alone. The AZN is used by Azerbaijan and no one else.

To see Azerbaijan next to every other country, sort the country rankings by population, area or density; its currency and languages are listed alongside every other country's in world currencies and world languages.

How to remember Azerbaijan

Baku lies on the Caspian Sea, 28 m below sea level, which makes it the lowest national capital in the world. Think 'Baku is way back down'. For the flag, read it from the sky down: blue, red, green, with a moon and star in the middle.

The flag of Azerbaijan: sky blue, red and green, with a white crescent and star

🇦🇿 The flag is three horizontal stripes of sky blue, red and green, with a white crescent and an eight-pointed star in the centre of the red stripe. Blue stands for Azerbaijan's Turkic heritage, red for progress and modernisation, and green for Islam. The crescent and star are a Turkic symbol, and the eight points of the star stand for the eight Turkic peoples.

Region and neighbours

Azerbaijan is a country in the South Caucasus, where Eastern Europe meets West Asia, on the western shore of the Caspian Sea. It shares land borders with 5 countries: Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Iran and Turkey. The border with Turkey is through Nakhchivan, a part of Azerbaijan that is separated from the rest of the country. Azerbaijan is landlocked, with no coast on the open ocean.

Russia 🇷🇺 — capital Moscow
Georgia 🇬🇪 — capital Tbilisi
Armenia 🇦🇲 — capital Yerevan
Iran 🇮🇷 — capital Tehran
Turkey 🇹🇷 — capital Ankara

Three facts about Azerbaijan

Nearly half of all the mud volcanoes on Earth are in Azerbaijan.
The highest peak is Mount Bazardüzü, about 4,466 m high in the Greater Caucasus mountains.
In 1918 the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic became the first secular democratic Muslim-majority state in the world.

Sources: Wikipedia: Azerbaijan, Wikipedia: Flag of Azerbaijan, Wikipedia: Baku, CIA World Factbook.

Quiz yourself on Azerbaijan

Asian capitals quiz — match Azerbaijan to Baku
Asian flags quiz — spot the Azerbaijan flag among its neighbours
Landlocked countries quiz — Azerbaijan has no sea coast

Quizzes that include Azerbaijan

Three angles are worth covering for any country — where it is, what its flag looks like, and what its capital is. For Azerbaijan those are:

Asia map quiz — place it on a blank map
Asia flags quiz — identify its flag among its neighbours
Asia capitals quiz — match it to Baku
Azerbaijan capital quiz — five quick questions starting with Azerbaijan, plus the answer quizzes most often try to trick you with
Daily Map Challenge — five countries to find on a blank world map, the same five for everyone each day

Doing all three for one continent before moving on is far more efficient than learning flags globally, then capitals globally, then the map.

Nearby countries

Afghanistan 🇦🇫 — capital Kabul
Armenia 🇦🇲 — capital Yerevan
Bahrain 🇧🇭 — capital Manama
Bangladesh 🇧🇩 — capital Dhaka
Bhutan 🇧🇹 — capital Thimphu
Brunei 🇧🇳 — capital Bandar Seri Begawan
Cambodia 🇰🇭 — capital Phnom Penh
China 🇨🇳 — capital Beijing
Georgia 🇬🇪 — capital Tbilisi
India 🇮🇳 — capital New Delhi
Indonesia 🇮🇩 — capital Jakarta
Iran 🇮🇷 — capital Tehran

Frequently asked questions

What are the colours of the Azerbaijan flag?

The flag of Azerbaijan is three horizontal stripes of sky blue, red and green, with a white crescent and an eight-pointed star in the centre of the red stripe. Blue stands for Azerbaijan's Turkic heritage, red for progress and modernisation, and green for Islam. The crescent and star are a Turkic symbol, and the eight points of the star stand for the eight Turkic peoples.

Which countries border Azerbaijan?

Azerbaijan shares land borders with Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Iran and Turkey. The border with Turkey is through Nakhchivan, a part of Azerbaijan that is separated from the rest of the country.