Chad 🇹🇩

Chad is a country in Africa with a population of 17,723,315. Its capital is N'Djamena. The official currency is XAF, and the main languages are French, Arabic.

Quick facts

Capital: N'Djamena
Continent: Africa
Population: 17,723,315
Area: 1,284,000 km²
Density: 13.8 people per km²
Currency: XAF
Languages: French, Arabic
ISO code: TD

Where Chad sits

Chad 🇹🇩 is one of 54 countries in Africa, with its capital at N'Djamena. It covers 1,284,000 square kilometres — 20th in the world — and is home to about 17,723,315 people, 69th 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 Chad compares

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

At 13.8 people per square kilometre it is about 4.3 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.

French is an official language in 30 countries here, among them Belgium, Benin, Burkina Faso and Burundi, and 25 others. The XAF is shared with 5 other countries, including Cameroon, Central African Republic and Congo, and 2 others.

To see Chad 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 Chad

N'Djamena sits right on the border with Cameroon, where the Chari and Logone rivers meet. Its flag is almost a twin of Romania's: same three stripes in the same order, with Chad's blue just a shade darker. If a quiz shows blue-gold-red, check the shade.

The flag of Chad: blue, gold and red

🇹🇩 The flag is three vertical stripes of blue, gold (yellow) and red. Blue stands for the sky, hope and the south of the country, gold for the sun and the desert in the north, and red for progress, unity and sacrifice.

Region and neighbours

Chad is a large landlocked country in north-central Africa, stretching from the Sahara Desert in the north to tropical savanna in the south. It shares land borders with 6 countries: Libya, Sudan, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Nigeria and Niger. Chad is landlocked, with no coast on the open ocean.

Libya 🇱🇾 — capital Tripoli
Sudan 🇸🇩 — capital Khartoum
Central African Republic 🇨🇫 — capital Bangui
Cameroon 🇨🇲 — capital Yaoundé
Nigeria 🇳🇬 — capital Abuja
Niger 🇳🇪 — capital Niamey

Three facts about Chad

The country is named after Lake Chad, which has shrunk dramatically since the 1960s.
The highest point in Chad, Emi Koussi in the Tibesti Mountains, is also the highest point in the Sahara Desert.
N'Djamena was founded by the French in 1910 under the name Fort-Lamy.

Sources: Wikipedia: Chad, Wikipedia: Flag of Chad, Wikipedia: N'Djamena, CIA World Factbook.

Quiz yourself on Chad

African capitals quiz — match Chad to N'Djamena
African flags quiz — spot the Chad flag among its neighbours
Landlocked countries quiz — Chad has no sea coast

Quizzes that include Chad

Three angles are worth covering for any country — where it is, what its flag looks like, and what its capital is. For Chad 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 N'Djamena
Chad capital quiz — five quick questions starting with Chad, 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

Algeria 🇩🇿 — capital Algiers
Angola 🇦🇴 — capital Luanda
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
Comoros 🇰🇲 — capital Moroni
Congo 🇨🇬 — capital Brazzaville
Democratic Republic of the Congo 🇨🇩 — capital Kinshasa

Frequently asked questions

What are the colours of the Chad flag?

The flag of Chad is three vertical stripes of blue, gold (yellow) and red. Blue stands for the sky, hope and the south of the country, gold for the sun and the desert in the north, and red for progress, unity and sacrifice.

Which countries border Chad?

Chad shares land borders with Libya, Sudan, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Nigeria and Niger.