Angola 🇦🇴

Angola is a country in Africa with a population of 35,588,987. Its capital is Luanda. The official currency is AOA, and the main languages are Portuguese.

Quick facts

Capital: Luanda
Continent: Africa
Population: 35,588,987
Area: 1,246,700 km²
Density: 28.5 people per km²
Currency: AOA
Languages: Portuguese
ISO code: AO

Where Angola sits

Angola 🇦🇴 is one of 54 countries in Africa, with its capital at Luanda. It covers 1,246,700 square kilometres — 22nd in the world — and is home to about 35,588,987 people, 42nd 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 Angola compares

Raw figures are hard to hold on their own, so it helps to anchor them. In population, Angola sits closest to Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan. In land area, its nearest counterparts are Mali and Niger.

At 28.5 people per square kilometre it is about 2.1 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.

Portuguese is an official language in 9 countries here, among them Brazil, Cabo Verde, Equatorial Guinea and Guinea-Bissau, and 4 others. The AOA is used by Angola and no one else.

To see Angola 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 Angola

Luanda and Angola share the same 'an' and both end in 'a'. Luanda is on the Atlantic coast. For the flag, red over black with a yellow gear and star.

The flag of Angola: red and black, with a yellow emblem

🇦🇴 The flag is two horizontal bands, red over black, with a yellow emblem of half a cog wheel, a machete and a star. Red stands for liberty and the struggle for independence, black for the African continent, and the emblem of half a cog wheel and a machete for workers and farmers.

Region and neighbours

Angola is a large country on the Atlantic coast of southern Africa. It shares land borders with 4 countries: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Congo, Zambia and Namibia. Its province of Cabinda is separated from the rest of the country by a strip of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and it is Cabinda that borders the Republic of the Congo.

Democratic Republic of the Congo 🇨🇩 — capital Kinshasa
Congo 🇨🇬 — capital Brazzaville
Zambia 🇿🇲 — capital Lusaka
Namibia 🇳🇦 — capital Windhoek

Three facts about Angola

Angola became independent from Portugal in 1975, and Portuguese is the official language.
The province of Cabinda is an exclave, separated from the rest of Angola.
The Kalandula Falls on the Lucala River are among the largest waterfalls in Africa by volume.

Sources: Wikipedia: Angola, Wikipedia: Flag of Angola, Wikipedia: Luanda, CIA World Factbook.

Quiz yourself on Angola

African capitals quiz — match Angola to Luanda
African flags quiz — spot the Angola flag among its neighbours

Quizzes that include Angola

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

Africa map quiz — place it on a blank map
Africa flags quiz — identify its flag among its neighbours
Africa capitals quiz — match it to Luanda
Angola capital quiz — five quick questions starting with Angola
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

Algeria 🇩🇿 — capital Algiers
Benin 🇧🇯 — capital Porto-Novo
Botswana 🇧🇼 — capital Gaborone
Burkina Faso 🇧🇫 — capital Ouagadougou
Burundi 🇧🇮 — capital Gitega
Cabo Verde 🇨🇻 — capital Praia
Cameroon 🇨🇲 — capital Yaoundé
Central African Republic 🇨🇫 — capital Bangui
Chad 🇹🇩 — capital N'Djamena
Comoros 🇰🇲 — capital Moroni
Congo 🇨🇬 — capital Brazzaville
Democratic Republic of the Congo 🇨🇩 — capital Kinshasa

Frequently asked questions

What are the colours of the Angola flag?

The flag of Angola is two horizontal bands, red over black, with a yellow emblem of half a cog wheel, a machete and a star. Red stands for liberty and the struggle for independence, black for the African continent, and the emblem of half a cog wheel and a machete for workers and farmers.

Which countries border Angola?

Angola shares land borders with Democratic Republic of the Congo, Congo, Zambia and Namibia. Its province of Cabinda is separated from the rest of the country by a strip of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and it is Cabinda that borders the Republic of the Congo.

How can I remember the capital of Angola?