The Gambia is a very small country: its total area is about 10,700–11,300 square kilometres (around 4,100–4,400 square miles), making it the smallest country on mainland Africa.

Basic size facts

  • Total area: roughly 10,689–11,300 km².
  • Land area: around 10,000–10,120 km² , with the rest made up of water, mainly the Gambia River.
  • It stretches about 480 km (300 miles) inland along the Gambia River.
  • Width: mostly between 25 and 50 km (15–30 miles), so it is long and very narrow.

How it “feels” in size

  • On a map of Africa, The Gambia looks like a thin ribbon carved out along the Gambia River, almost like a narrow corridor through Senegal.
  • You can drive from the Atlantic coast to the far eastern end of the country in a day, which is unusual when you compare it with most African countries of much larger area.

Quick comparison

Here’s a simple way to picture how big The Gambia is :

  • It’s a bit smaller than the U.S. state of Connecticut in area.
  • It’s much smaller than many big world cities’ wider metro regions (for example, the wider London or Greater Tokyo areas cover more land than the whole of The Gambia).

TL;DR: The Gambia is a long, thin river country, about 11,000 km² in area and only a few dozen kilometres wide, making it mainland Africa’s smallest country.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.