African Countries: Complete List with ISO 3166 Codes

Africa is the second-largest continent by both area and population, with 54 sovereign nations and several dependent territories. This reference lists every African country and territory recognized in ISO 3166, organized by UN M49 subregion, with their alpha-2, alpha-3, and numeric codes.

Quick Access with Code

Get all African countries programmatically using @koshmoney/countries:

import { geography } from '@koshmoney/countries/geography';
import { country } from '@koshmoney/countries';
 
// Get all African country codes
const africanCodes = geography.getCountriesByContinent('Africa');
// ['AO', 'BF', 'BI', 'BJ', 'BW', 'CD', 'CF', 'CG', 'CI', 'CM', ...]
 
// Get full country objects
const africanCountries = africanCodes.map((code) => country.whereAlpha2(code));
console.log(africanCountries.length); // 58 (including territories)

Northern Africa

import { geography } from '@koshmoney/countries/geography';
 
geography.getCountriesByRegion('Northern Africa');
// ['DZ', 'EG', 'EH', 'LY', 'MA', 'SD', 'TN']

Eastern Africa

Eastern Africa is the largest subregion on the continent with 20 entries, including the island nations of Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, and Seychelles, as well as the French overseas territories of Mayotte and Reunion.

Middle Africa

[!NOTE] The two Congo entries are distinct countries. The Republic of the Congo (CG/COG) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (CD/COD) have different ISO codes. Be careful not to confuse them in your applications.

Southern Africa

Southern Africa is the smallest subregion with just 5 countries. South Africa (ZA) is the economic powerhouse of the region and the entire continent.

Western Africa

Nigeria (NG) is the most populous country in Africa and the seventh most populous in the world.

Working with African Country Data

Filter African countries by currency

import { geography } from '@koshmoney/countries/geography';
import { currency } from '@koshmoney/countries/currency';
 
const africanCodes = geography.getCountriesByContinent('Africa');
 
// Find all African countries using a specific currency
const xofCountries = africanCodes.filter((code) => {
  const curr = currency.getCurrency(code);
  return curr?.code === 'XOF';
});
// West African CFA franc countries

Validate an African country code

import { country } from '@koshmoney/countries';
import { geography } from '@koshmoney/countries/geography';
 
function isAfricanCountry(code: string): boolean {
  if (!country.isAlpha2(code)) return false;
  return geography.getContinent(code) === 'Africa';
}
 
isAfricanCountry('NG'); // true (Nigeria)
isAfricanCountry('US'); // false
isAfricanCountry('XX'); // false

Get subdivisions for an African country

import { subdivision } from '@koshmoney/countries';
 
const nigerianStates = subdivision.forCountry('NG');
// [{ code: 'NG-AB', name: 'Abia', type: 'State', ... }, ...]
console.log(nigerianStates.length); // 36 states + FCT

Summary

Africa has 58 entries in the ISO 3166 standard across 5 UN M49 subregions. The @koshmoney/countries library provides full access to all African country codes, subdivisions, currencies, and geographic classifications through a consistent, type-safe API.

Related

• Geography API — Continent and region lookups
• European Countries List — All European country codes
• Asian Countries List — All Asian country codes
• Country API — Full country lookup reference