Gabon, a country along the Atlantic coast of Central Africa, has significant areas of protected parkland. The forested coastal terrain of its famed Loango National Park shelters a diversity of wildlife, from gorillas and hippos to whales. Lopé National Park consists of mostly rainforest. Akanda National Park is known for its mangroves and tidal beaches.
Want to learn a little more about the countries of the world? Take a look at these 18 interesting facts about Gabon!
- Gabon is a Sovereign State on the west coast of Africa.
- It shares a border with Equatorial Guinea to the north-west, Cameroon to the north, the Republic of the Congo to the east and south and the Gulf of Guinea to the west.
- Gabon has an area of 103,347 square miles (267,667 square kilometres).
- The coordinates for Gabon are 0.3833° N, 9.4500°
- This African country had a population of 2.119 million in 2018.
- Gabon’s capital city is called Libreville, which had a population of 703,940 in 2013.
- The terrain here is flat coastal plains, with rainforests and hills inland and savannah to the east and south.
- Because it lies directly on the equator, Gabon enjoys a tropical climate with year round hot and humid weather. Sounds incredible!
- There is an amazing 550 miles (885 kilometres) of coastline to explore here, with incredible sandy beaches and beautiful blue seas. We want to go!
- Gabon is lucky enough to be home to around 80% of Africa’s Gorilla population!
- The average life expectancy here is 66.1 years (2016).
- Like many other African countries, the currency of Gabon is the CFA franc.
- French is the official language of Gabon. Oui, monsieur! You will find, however, that Fang, Myene, Nzebi, Bapounou/Eschira and Bandjabi are spoken here too! Think we’ll stick to French for now!
- Gabon has many ancient tribes amongst its population, with the 4 main ones being Fang, Bapounou, Nzebi and Obamba. Incredible!
- They grow cacao, coffee, okoume (tropical softwood) and sugar, rear cattle, catch fish and produce palm oil here.
- The country’s industry consists of chemicals, petroleum extraction and refining and manganese and gold mining.
- Gabon exports crude oil, manganese, uranium and timber.
- The international dialling code for Gabon is +241.
Do you know any fun or interesting facts about Gabon that we’ve missed? Share them here in the comments section below!