Madagascar 🇲🇬
Madagascar is a country in Africa with a population of 29,611,714. Its capital is Antananarivo. The official currency is MGA, and the main languages are Malagasy, French.
Quick facts
- Capital: Antananarivo
- Continent: Africa
- Population: 29,611,714
- Area: 587,041 km²
- Density: 50.4 people per km²
- Currency: MGA
- Languages: Malagasy, French
- ISO code: MG
Where Madagascar sits
Madagascar 🇲🇬 is one of 54 countries in Africa, with its capital at Antananarivo. It covers 587,041 square kilometres — 46th in the world — and is home to about 29,611,714 people, 50th 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 Madagascar compares
Raw figures are hard to hold on their own, so it helps to anchor them. In population, Madagascar sits closest to Nepal and Venezuela. In land area, its nearest counterparts are Botswana and Kenya.
At 50.4 people per square kilometre it is about 1.2 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.
Malagasy is listed as official in Madagascar alone. The MGA is used by Madagascar and no one else.
To see Madagascar 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 Madagascar
Antananarivo is long, so split it: An-ta-na-na-RI-vo. The name means 'city of the thousand', after the thousand soldiers said to have guarded it, and most people simply call it Tana. For the flag, think of a white page with a red-and-green bookmark.
The flag of Madagascar: white, red and green
🇲🇬 The flag is a white vertical band at the hoist, with a red horizontal band above a green one. White stands for purity, red for sovereignty and green for hope. Red and white were also the royal colours of the Merina Kingdom, which ruled much of the island before French rule.
Region and neighbours
Madagascar is an island country in the Indian Ocean, off the southeast coast of Africa, across the Mozambique Channel. As an island country it has no land neighbours.
Three facts about Madagascar
- Madagascar is the fourth-largest island in the world, after Greenland, New Guinea and Borneo.
- Most of its plants and animals live nowhere else on Earth. Lemurs, for example, are found naturally only on Madagascar.
- The Malagasy language is most closely related to languages spoken on the island of Borneo, thousands of kilometres away across the Indian Ocean.
Sources: Wikipedia: Madagascar, Wikipedia: Flag of Madagascar, Wikipedia: Antananarivo, CIA World Factbook.
Quiz yourself on Madagascar
- African capitals quiz — match Madagascar to Antananarivo
- African flags quiz — spot the Madagascar flag among its neighbours
- Island nations quiz — Madagascar is an island country
Quizzes that include Madagascar
Three angles are worth covering for any country — where it is, what its flag looks like, and what its capital is. For Madagascar 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 Antananarivo
- Madagascar capital quiz — five quick questions starting with Madagascar
- 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.
Read more about Madagascar
- Capital of Madagascar: Antananarivo — the capital in detail, with size and density rankings
- All 54 countries of Africa
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
- Chad 🇹🇩 — capital N'Djamena
- Comoros 🇰🇲 — capital Moroni
- Congo 🇨🇬 — capital Brazzaville
Frequently asked questions
What are the colours of the Madagascar flag?
The flag of Madagascar is a white vertical band at the hoist, with a red horizontal band above a green one. White stands for purity, red for sovereignty and green for hope. Red and white were also the royal colours of the Merina Kingdom, which ruled much of the island before French rule.
Which countries border Madagascar?
None. Madagascar is an island country in the Indian Ocean, off the southeast coast of Africa, across the Mozambique Channel, so it has no land borders with other countries.
How can I remember the capital of Madagascar?
Antananarivo is long, so split it: An-ta-na-na-RI-vo. The name means 'city of the thousand', after the thousand soldiers said to have guarded it, and most people simply call it Tana. For the flag, think of a white page with a red-and-green bookmark.