Geography Quiz Arcade

Somalia 🇸🇴

Somalia is a country in Africa with a population of 17,597,511. Its capital is Mogadishu. The official currency is SOS, and the main languages are Somali, Arabic.

Quick facts

  • Capital: Mogadishu
  • Continent: Africa
  • Population: 17,597,511
  • Area: 637,657 km²
  • Density: 27.6 people per km²
  • Currency: SOS
  • Languages: Somali, Arabic
  • ISO code: SO

Where Somalia sits

Somalia 🇸🇴 is one of 54 countries in Africa, with its capital at Mogadishu. It covers 637,657 square kilometres — 43rd in the world — and is home to about 17,597,511 people, 70th globally.

The countries it shares a continent with include Nigeria, Ethiopia, Egypt, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania. 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 Somalia compares

Raw figures are hard to hold on their own, so it helps to anchor them. In population, Somalia sits closest to Netherlands and Chad. In land area, its nearest counterparts are France and South Sudan.

At 27.6 people per square kilometre it is about 2.2 times below the world average of 59.4. It ranks higher by area than by population, so it is more spacious than its population alone suggests.

Somali is listed as official in Somalia alone. The SOS is used by Somalia and no one else.

To see Somalia 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 Somalia

Mogadishu is on the Indian Ocean coast. The flag is one of the simplest in the world: a single white star on light blue.

The flag of Somalia: light blue and white

🇸🇴 The flag is a light blue flag with a large white five-pointed star in the centre. The blue was originally inspired by the flag of the United Nations. The five points of the star stand for the five regions where Somali people live.

Region and neighbours

Somalia is a country in the Horn of Africa, the easternmost part of mainland Africa, with coasts on the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. It shares land borders with 3 countries: Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya.

Three facts about Somalia

  1. Somalia has the longest coastline of any country on mainland Africa.
  2. Ras Hafun in Somalia is the easternmost point of mainland Africa.
  3. The Laas Geel caves, near Hargeisa in the north, hold some of the earliest known cave paintings of cattle in the Horn of Africa, about 4,500 to 5,500 years old.

Sources: Wikipedia: Somalia, Wikipedia: Flag of Somalia, Wikipedia: Mogadishu, CIA World Factbook.

Quiz yourself on Somalia

Quizzes that include Somalia

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

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

Read more about Somalia

Nearby countries

Frequently asked questions

What are the colours of the Somalia flag?

The flag of Somalia is a light blue flag with a large white five-pointed star in the centre. The blue was originally inspired by the flag of the United Nations. The five points of the star stand for the five regions where Somali people live.

Which countries border Somalia?

Somalia shares land borders with Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya.

How can I remember the capital of Somalia?

Mogadishu is on the Indian Ocean coast. The flag is one of the simplest in the world: a single white star on light blue.