Western Sahara
Capital: El Aaiun · Africa
Western Sahara is a United Nations–designated non-self-governing territory in north-western Africa. It has a surface area of 272,000 square kilometres (105,000 sq mi). Western Sahara is the last African colonial state yet to achieve independence and has been dubbed "Africa's last colony". With an estimated 600,000 inhabitants, it is the most sparsely populated territory in Africa and the second most sparsely populated territory in the world after Greenland, consisting mainly of desert flatlands. Francoist Spain previously colonized the territory as the Spanish Sahara until 1975–1976. Spain attempted to transfer its administration to Morocco and Mauritania despite an advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice that those countries had no sovereignty over Western Sahara; a war erupted and the pro-independence Polisario Front proclaimed the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR)
Western Sahara in world rankings
- 169th largest by population in the world (of 219)
- 78th largest by area in the world (of 219)
- Capital
- El Aaiun
- Population
- 570,000
- Area
- 266,000 km²
- Currency
- —
- Calling code
- +212
- Languages
- —
Western Sahara compared with Taiwan
How Western Sahara measures up against Taiwan — home to 23.3 million people across 36,193 km².
Cities & destinations in Western Sahara 1
Airports in Western Sahara 4
Churches in Western Sahara 1
Cathedrals in Western Sahara 2
Explore Western Sahara by category
Country fields from Wikidata (CC0); flag via Wikimedia Commons; profile from the CIA World Factbook (public domain); travel guide from Wikivoyage (CC BY-SA); GDP, GDP per capita and life expectancy from World Bank Open Data (CC BY 4.0).