Namibia
Name
| Official name | Republic of Namibia — Republiek van Namibië |
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| Former names | South West Africa, the League mandate and the province of South Africa (1915–90); German South West Africa — Deutsch-Südwestafrika (1884–1915); the Walvis Bay enclave of the Cape Colony (1878–1994); Damaraland and Great Namaqualand of the traders' maps; Ovamboland, Hereroland and the bantustans of the 1960s |
| Demonym | Namibian |
| Meaning of the name | From the Namib — "vast place" or "area where there is nothing" in Khoekhoegowab, the language of the Nama — the desert of the coast; Namibia the name proposed by Mburumba Kerina and adopted by the UN General Assembly on 12 June 1968 for the territory South Africa still called South West Africa |
| Motto | "Unity, Liberty, Justice" — on the arms |
Quick facts
| Capital | Windhoek — Jonker Afrikaner's springs of 1840, the German capital from 18 October 1890, the capital of the republic; about 500,000 in the city, a million in the Khomas region around it; at 1,700 m |
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| Largest cities | Windhoek; Rundu on the Okavango, about 120,000; Walvis Bay, the port, about 110,000; Swakopmund, the German seaside town; Oshakati and Ondangwa of the Ovambo north; Katima Mulilo on the Zambezi; Rehoboth of the Basters; Otjiwarongo; Keetmanshoop of the south; Lüderitz of the diamonds and the hydrogen; Tsumeb of the mine |
| Official language | English — the sole official language by the Constitution of 1990, the mother tongue of 2%, chosen against Afrikaans, the language of the apartheid state, and German, the language of the colony; Oshiwambo the home language of half the people, Khoekhoegowab of the Nama and Damara 11%, Afrikaans 10% and the lingua franca of the towns, Rukwangali of the Kavango 9%, Otjiherero 9%, the Lozi of the Zambezi 4%, German 1%, the San languages; 13 recognized national languages in the schools |
| Currency | Namibian dollar — NAD, N$; 100 cents; since 15 September 1993; pegged one to one to the South African rand, itself legal tender; about 17 to the U.S. dollar |
| Time zone | Central Africa Time, UTC+2, all year — the winter time of UTC+1 abolished in 2017 |
| Calling code | +264 |
| Internet domain | .na |
| ISO 3166 codes | NA · NAM · 516 |
| Vehicle registration code | NAM |
| Driving side | Left |
| Electricity | 220 V, 50 Hz; plug types D and M |
| Independence | 21 March 1990, from South Africa, at midnight in the Windhoek stadium before Pérez de Cuéllar and Mandela, ten days out of prison, Sam Nujoma sworn as the first president — the last colony of Africa freed under UN Resolution 435 of 1978 after the election of November 1989; Walvis Bay returned by South Africa 1 March 1994 |
| National days | 21 March, Independence Day; 4 May, Cassinga Day, for the South African raid on the refugee camp in Angola of 1978 with more than 600 dead; 28 May, Genocide Remembrance Day, held for the first time in 2025 for the Herero and Nama; 26 August, Heroes' Day, for the first battle of the liberation war at Ongulumbashe in 1966, the sixtieth in 2026; 25 May, Africa Day; 10 December, Human Rights Day, for the Old Location shooting of 1959; 1 May; Good Friday, Easter, Ascension; 25 and 26 December, Christmas and Family Day |
| Constitution | 9 February 1990 — the Constitution of the Republic of Namibia, adopted unanimously by the Constituent Assembly elected in 1989 and in force at independence on 21 March 1990, the model of the "Namibian compromise": a president elected by the people for five years and two terms, the prime minister he names, the National Assembly and the National Council, the Bill of Rights with the ban on the death penalty and the first clause in any constitution on the protection of the environment; amended in 1998 for Nujoma's third term, in 2010 and in 2014 for the vice presidency and the enlarged houses |
| Population | 3,022,401 at the census of 2023, from 2,113,077 in 2011; about 3.15 million (2026 est.) |
| Area | 824,292 km² (318,261 sq mi) — land 823,290 km², water 1,002 km²; the thirty-fourth-largest |
Flag & national symbols
| National flag | A red diagonal band edged in white from the lower hoist to the upper fly divides a blue upper triangle bearing a golden sun of twelve rays from a green lower triangle — the blue for the sky, the Atlantic and the rain, the red for the people and their heroism, the green for the land's resources, the white for peace and unity, the sun for life and energy; chosen by the Constituent Assembly from 835 entries and made from the designs of three, and raised at midnight on 21 March 1990 as the South African flag came down.Flag of Namibia |
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| Coat of arms | The shield of the flag held by two oryx on a sand dune of the Namib with the welwitschia below, the African fish eagle above on a headband of the Herero and Nama patterns, and the scroll "Unity, Liberty, Justice" — the fish eagle for the vision of the leaders, the oryx for courage and pride, the welwitschia for endurance; adopted 1990 |
| National anthem | "Namibia, Land of the Brave" — words and music by Axali Doëseb, the winner of the competition of 1991; adopted 17 December 1991, "Namibia, land of the brave, freedom fight we have won"; the melody sung at every 21 March |
| National motto | "Unity, Liberty, Justice" |
| National colors | Blue, red, green, white and gold |
| National animal | The oryx — the gemsbok of the arms, the antelope of the dunes that lives without water; the cheetah, of which the country holds a third of the world's 7,000, the largest population on earth, on the farms of the plateau; the desert elephants and the black rhinos of Kunene; widely cited |
| National bird | The African fish eagle of the arms, the cry of the Okavango and the Zambezi; the ostrich of the plains; widely cited |
| National plant | The welwitschia — Welwitschia mirabilis, the two-leaved plant of the Namib gravel that lives 1,500 years and more, named for the Austrian who found it in 1859, the "living fossil" of the arms; the camelthorn of the dry rivers and the quiver tree of the south the trees; widely cited |
| National dish | Kapana — the strips of beef grilled on the open fires of the Katutura market and the town streets, eaten with chili and salt; oshifima, the mahangu millet porridge of the north, with the oshingali beans and the wild spinach; potjiekos and braai of the settlers, the biltong, the game of the oryx and the kudu; the oshikundu of fermented millet, the omagungu mopane worms, the Windhoek Lager of the German brewers; widely cited |
| National sport | Football, the Brave Warriors of the Cup of Nations of 1998, 2008, 2019 and 2024, the round of 16 of 2024 the first knockout win; rugby, the Welwitschias of seven World Cups since 1999 without a win; cricket, the Eagles of the T20 World Cups of 2021, 2022 and 2024; the athletics of Frankie Fredericks, the four Olympic silvers of 1992 and 1996, and of Christine Mboma's silver of Tokyo; widely cited |
| Symbol status | The flag and the arms by the Constitution and the National Symbols Act; the anthem by the act of 1991; the animals, birds, plant, dishes and sports widely cited |
Geography
| Location | Southwestern Africa on the Atlantic — Angola to the north across the Kunene and the Okavango, Zambia at the eastern tip of the Zambezi Region, Botswana to the east across the Kalahari, South Africa to the south across the Orange; the Tropic of Capricorn through the middle; the Namib along the whole coast |
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| Land borders | 4,220 km (2,622 mi) with four neighbors — Botswana 1,544, Angola 1,427, South Africa 1,005, Zambia 244; the Zambezi Region, the Caprivi Strip of the Heligoland treaty of 1890, reaching 450 km east to the Zambezi and the four-corners of Kazungula; the Oshikango crossing of the Angolan trade, the Noordoewer and Ariamsvlei of the South African, the Trans-Kalahari of the Botswana |
| Coastline | 1,572 km (977 mi) — the Skeleton Coast of the wrecks and the fog in the north, the Cape Cross seal colony of 100,000, the Walvis Bay lagoon of the flamingos, the Sperrgebiet of the diamonds in the south, the shore where the dunes meet the sea at Sandwich Harbour; the Benguela current, cold and rich, the fishery; the Orange Basin of the oil 300 km offshore |
| Highest point | Königstein, 2,573 m (8,442 ft), on the Brandberg massif in Erongo |
| Lowest point | The Atlantic Ocean, 0 m |
| Mean elevation | 1,141 m (3,743 ft) — the plateau of the interior at 1,000–2,000 m |
| Rivers | Four perennial rivers, all on the borders — the Orange in the south, the Kunene in the northwest with the Ruacana and Epupa falls, the Okavango in the north on its way to Botswana's delta, the Zambezi and the Kwando–Chobe of the Zambezi Region; the ephemeral rivers of the interior that run for days after the rains — the Fish and its canyon, the Swakop, the Kuiseb that stops the dunes, the Ugab, the Hoanib and the Hoarusib of the desert elephants; the Cuvelai of the northern floods; water from the Kunene by the Calueque canal and from the aquifers |
| Lakes | None natural of size — the Etosha pan, the salt flat of 4,800 km², the bed of a lake dried 10 million years ago, a few weeks of shallow water in a good rains; the sinkhole lakes of Otjikoto and Guinas of Tsumeb; the Hardap dam of 1963 on the Fish, the largest reservoir, and the Naute, the Von Bach and the Neckartal of 2018, the largest dam; the Deadvlei of the dead camelthorns; the Sossusvlei pan |
| Terrain | The Namib of the coast, 80 to 160 km wide along the whole length of the country, the oldest desert on earth at 55 million years, the gravel plains of the north and the Namib Sand Sea of the south with the dunes of Sossusvlei and Dune 7; the Great Escarpment rising to the central plateau of the savanna and the bush, the Khomas Hochland of Windhoek, the Waterberg, the Brandberg and the Erongo, the Spitzkoppe; the Kalahari of the east, the red sand and the thornveld; the Fish River Canyon of the south; the Kaokoveld of the Himba and the Etosha of the north; the wetlands of the Zambezi panhandle |
| Climate | Arid and semi-arid — the driest country of sub-Saharan Africa, the rain from under 25 mm on the coast to 350 in Windhoek and 600 in the Zambezi Region, falling in the summer from November to April; the coast cool and fogbound under the Benguela, Walvis Bay at 15 to 20°C, the interior hot and dry, 40°C in the south in the summer and frost in the winter nights; the sun of 300 days |
| Natural hazards | Drought — the droughts of 2013, 2019 and 2023–24, the worst in a century, the state of emergency of May 2024 and the culling of 700 elephants, hippos and other animals for meat, half the people short of food; the floods of the Cuvelai of 2011 and the rains of 2025–26; the sandstorms; the wildfire of Etosha of 22–29 September 2025 that burned a third of the park's grazing, the army sent in; the fog of the Skeleton Coast that wrecked the ships; the Chobe stampede of 90 buffaloes of September 2025 |
| Natural resources | Diamonds, the marine diamonds of the Sperrgebiet seabed, the world's richest, Debmarine's ships; uranium, the third producer in the world, Rössing since 1976 and Husab since 2016, the second-largest mine; gold of Otjikoto and Navachab; zinc of Rosh Pinah; copper of Tsumeb; lithium, rare earths and tin of the new mines; the fish of the Benguela, the hake and the horse mackerel; the oil of the Orange Basin, Venus and Mopane, the largest deepwater finds of the decade; the sun and wind for the green hydrogen; the grazing of the cattle and the karakul; the game |
| Land use | Agricultural land about 47%, all but a sliver of it the rangeland of the cattle and the game; arable under 1%; forest about 8%, the mopane and the Kalahari woodland; the commercial farms of the settlers' heirs on 42% of the land against the communal lands of the north, the land question of every election |
| National parks | Etosha of 1907, 22,270 km² around the pan, the elephants, lions, rhinos and the waterholes of the dry season; Namib-Naukluft, 49,768 km², among the largest parks of Africa, of the Sossusvlei dunes and the Naukluft mountains; the Skeleton Coast; Bwabwata and Nkasa Rupara of the Zambezi wetlands; Waterberg of the rhinos and the roan; the Ai-Ais/Richtersveld transfrontier park of the Fish River Canyon; Tsau ǁKhaeb of the old diamond area of 2008, the hydrogen site; the Kavango–Zambezi transfrontier area of five countries, the largest conservation area of the world; the 86 communal conservancies that put 42% of the country under conservation management, the model Africa copied |
| UNESCO World Heritage | 2 — Twyfelfontein (2007), the 2,500 rock engravings of the giraffes, rhinos and the lion-man of 6,000 years in the Kunene; the Namib Sand Sea (2013), the coastal dunes fed by the fog; the Brandberg's White Lady on the tentative list with the Fish River Canyon and the Welwitschia plains; the marula festival of the Ovambo, the Oshituthi shomagongo (2015), and the ancestral musical knowledge of the Nama and Damara (2020) on the intangible list |
| Administrative divisions | 14 regions since 2013 — Zambezi, Erongo, Hardap, ǁKaras, Kavango East, Kavango West, Khomas, Kunene, Ohangwena, Omaheke, Omusati, Oshana, Oshikoto and Otjozondjupa — with regional councils elected by constituency; 121 constituencies; 57 local authorities; the traditional authorities of the chiefs and kings of the Ovambo, Kavango, Herero and Nama recognized by the act of 2000 |
People
| Population | 3,022,401 (census of 2023); about 3.15 million (2026 est.) |
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| Population density | About 3.7 per km² (9.6 per sq mi) — the second-lowest of any sovereign state after Mongolia; the north of the Ovambo holding half the people on a tenth of the land |
| Population growth | About 3% a year between the censuses of 2011 and 2023, the count of 2023 43% above the last; about 2.7% by the estimates |
| Median age | About 21 years |
| Life expectancy | About 65 years — the HIV of the 2000s and the treatment since |
| Fertility rate | About 3.2 births per woman |
| Urban population | About 55% — the townships of Windhoek, the informal settlements of 400,000 shacks |
| Adult literacy | About 92% |
| Ethnic groups | Ovambo about 50%, the people of the north and of SWAPO, the Kwanyama and the Ndonga of the kingdoms; Kavango about 9%, of the river; Herero about 7%, the cattle people of the genocide and the long dresses of the women; Damara about 7%, the Khoekhoe-speaking people of the center; Nama about 5%, of the south, the Witboois and the ǀKhowesin; the Lozi and the Zambezi peoples about 4%; San about 3%, the first people, the Ju|'hoansi and the Haiǁom, the poorest; Baster about 2%, of Rehoboth, the descendants of the Cape; the whites about 6%, Afrikaners and Germans, the owners of most of the farms; the Coloureds of the towns; the Tswana; the Himba of the Kaokoveld; no census by ethnicity, the count by the home language |
| Languages | Oshiwambo the home language of 49%, Khoekhoegowab 11%, Afrikaans 10%, Rukwangali and the Kavango languages 9%, Otjiherero 9%, the Lozi of the Zambezi 4%, English 2%, German 1%, the San languages of the clicks, the Setswana; English the language of the state and the schools, Afrikaans of the towns, the shops and the police, German of Swakopmund and the beer; the Ovambo, Herero and Nama newspapers |
| Religion | Christian about 90% — Lutheran about half, the largest Lutheran share of any country of Africa, the churches of the Finnish and German missions of the 1840s and 1870s, the ELCIN of the north and the ELCRN; Roman Catholic about 20%; Anglican, the Dutch Reformed of the Afrikaners, the African Methodist Episcopal, the Pentecostals and the Zionists; the traditional faith of the Himba and the San about 10%; the churches the voice of the struggle and of the president's Anglican faith |
| Human Development Index | 0.665 (2023 data, 2025 report) — medium; 136th of 193; the inequality-adjusted 0.438 |
| Inequality and the land | The Gini of 59, the second-highest in the world after South Africa's — the whites of 6% with most of the wealth and the commercial farms, the townships and the shacks of the rest; unemployment 36.9% by the strict count of 2023 and 54.8% by the broad, the young at 44%; 17% in extreme poverty, 41% in multidimensional poverty; the land reform of "willing seller, willing buyer" since 1990, 3 million hectares bought and the Affirmative Repositioning movement of the young for the urban land, its seats of 2024 and 2025; the social grants of the old and the orphans, the free tuition of 2026; the HIV of about 11% of the adults, the antiretrovirals for most |
| Sport | Football — the Brave Warriors, Peter Shalulile and the win over Tunisia at the Cup of Nations of 2024, the first knockout stage; rugby, the Welwitschias of the World Cups; cricket, the Eagles who beat Sri Lanka at the T20 World Cup of 2022 and qualified for 2026; athletics — Frankie Fredericks, the four Olympic silvers of 1992 and 1996 and the world 200 m title of 1993, the only medals until Christine Mboma's 200 m silver of Tokyo of 2021, barred from the 400 by the testosterone rules; boxing's world champions; the Desert Dash of the cyclists; the marathoners of the dunes |
| Diaspora | Small — South Africa, Britain, Germany, the United States; the Namibians of Angola's border; the Ovambo of the migrant labor of the old contract system; the Germans of Namibia in Germany |
Government
| Form of government | Unitary semi-presidential republic under the Constitution of 1990 — the president elected by the people for five years and two terms as head of state and government and commander of the forces, with the vice president of the amendment of 2014, the prime minister the leader of the government's business in the parliament; the National Assembly of 96 elected and 8 appointed, the National Council of 42; the Supreme Court; SWAPO in power since 1990 in a democracy Freedom House rates free, the elections of 2024 its hardest test |
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| President | Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah (SWAPO — the South West Africa People's Organisation), since 21 March 2025 — the fifth president and the first woman, the second woman in Africa elected directly to a presidency after Liberia's Sirleaf; born 29 October 1952 at Onamutai in Ovamboland, the SWAPO Youth League leader jailed in 1973, in exile from 1974 in Zambia, Tanzania and Britain, a graduate of Keele and Glasgow, the party's representative in East Africa, the minister of women's affairs, information, environment and foreign affairs of 2000–24, the deputy prime minister of 2015–24, the vice president from 4 February 2024, the day Hage Geingob died in office, to her inauguration; elected on 27–30 November 2024 with 58.07% of the vote against the 15 candidates, the polling extended by three days when the ballot papers ran out, the opposition's court challenge dismissed; the cabinet of 14 ministers, the smallest since independence, half of them women; the president of "the poorest of the poor," of the free tertiary tuition of 2026 and of the oil, "it is not a question of a choice between green hydrogen and the oil and gas, but rather a mix," her words at New York in September 2026; the Anglican of the conservative views, "a hard line" on the gay rights and the abortion the BTI notes; her term to March 2030 |
| Vice President and Prime Minister | Lucia Witbooi, the vice president since 21 March 2025, the first woman in the office, the Nama of the Witbooi clan, the former deputy minister of education; Elijah Ngurare, the prime minister since 21 March 2025, born 1969, the SWAPO Youth League secretary expelled from the party in 2015 over the land campaign of the young and readmitted, the doctor of philosophy of the Zimbabwe university, the "leftist" of the party in the press; the deputy prime minister Natangwe Ithete dismissed on 26 October 2025 with his mines, energy and industry portfolio, which the president took herself before naming Modestus Amutse on 2 December 2025, the deputy premiership left vacant; the agriculture minister Mac-Albert Hengari dismissed 27 April 2025 on his arrest for rape |
| The 2024 election | Held 27 November 2024 and extended to 30 November when the ballot papers and the machines ran short, the queues of the capital lasting a day — Nandi-Ndaitwah 58.07%, Panduleni Itula of the Independent Patriots for Change 25.99%, the dentist who had taken 29% as an independent in 2019, Job Amupanda of Affirmative Repositioning, McHenry Venaani of the Popular Democratic Movement and Bernadus Swartbooi of the Landless People's Movement the rest; the National Assembly — SWAPO 51 of the 96 elected seats with 53%, its majority cut from 63 in 2019, the IPC 20, Affirmative Repositioning 6, the PDM 5, the LPM 5, the National Unity Democratic Organisation 2, the smaller parties the rest; turnout 76.5%; "a botched election" and "an illegal extension," the IPC said in its petition to the Electoral Court and the Supreme Court, which threw it out; "free and fair," the Electoral Commission and the SADC observers, "deficiencies in election administration," the BTI |
| The local elections of 2025 | The regional council and local authority elections of 26 November 2025 — SWAPO's comeback, 52.4% of the local seats from 39.9% in 2020, the towns of Swakopmund, Walvis Bay, Lüderitz, Keetmanshoop and Mariental won back from the opposition, the Windhoek council retaken; the IPC down to 15% from 21%; Affirmative Repositioning's first seats in nine towns; the Landless People's Movement holding its south; turnout 36.29% of the 752,435 registered, 272,942 votes; the new National Council of 42 seated on the councils' vote |
| Parliament | The National Assembly — 96 members elected for five years by proportional representation on national lists and 8 appointed by the president without a vote, 104 in all; Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila the Speaker since 20 March 2025, the first woman, the prime minister of 2015–25; the National Council of 42, three from each of the 14 regional councils, the house of review; the Tintenpalast of 1913, the "ink palace," their seat |
| The next election | The presidential and National Assembly elections in November 2029; the regional and local elections in November 2030 |
| SWAPO and the opposition | SWAPO — the Ovamboland People's Organisation of 1957 become the South West Africa People's Organisation on 19 April 1960, Sam Nujoma's liberation movement of the bush war of 1966–89 and the ruling party since 1990 with the two-thirds of the 1990s and 2010s gone in 2019, the corruption of the "Fishrot" bribes of 2019 that jailed two ministers and the young voters' desertion its wounds, the party congress of November 2025; the Independent Patriots for Change of Itula, founded 2020, the official opposition; Affirmative Repositioning of Amupanda, the movement of the urban land; the PDM, the heir of the DTA of the old order; the LPM of the Nama south; the Herero and Nama parties; Nujoma, the founding president of 1990–2005, dead 8 February 2025 at 95 and buried at Heroes' Acre |
| The oil | The Orange Basin — TotalEnergies' Venus of February 2022 in 3,000 m of water 290 km off Oranjemund, about 5.1 billion barrels in place and the largest deepwater discovery in sub-Saharan Africa's history, Shell's Graff and Jonker the same month, Galp's Mopane of 2024, "the discovery of the year"; the field development plan for Venus submitted by TotalEnergies and under the government's review since March 2026, the final investment decision targeted for the last quarter of 2026 after a first slip from 2025, first oil in 2029–30 at about 150,000 barrels a day for 25 years, up to €12 billion for the state by the company's count; the fiscal terms, the reinjection of the gas and the petroleum law of 1991 the negotiation, "the defining fiscal confrontation of Namibia's modern economic history," the analysts'; Shell's write-down of US$400 million on its block in January 2025; the asset swap with Galp of 9 December 2025 approved in July 2026 that made TotalEnergies the operator of Mopane too from 4 September 2026 beside Venus; Namcor's 10%; the local content and the 5,000 jobs of the peak; the port of Walvis Bay and the Lüderitz base; "the wealth beneath its soil and offshore," the Heroes' Day question of 26 August 2026 |
| The genocide | The extermination of the Herero and Nama by the German army of 1904–08 after the uprising of 12 January 1904 — the battle of the Waterberg of 11 August, General von Trotha's order of 2 October 1904 that every Herero be shot, the Omaheke desert and the camps of Shark Island, about 65,000 of the 80,000 Herero and 10,000 of the 20,000 Nama dead, the first genocide of the twentieth century by the historians' count; the skulls returned by Germany in 2011 and 2018; the joint declaration of 28 May 2021 in which Germany "acknowledged" the genocide and offered €1.1 billion of development aid over 30 years without the word reparations, initialed and never ratified, rejected by the Ovaherero Traditional Authority and the Nama chiefs who were not at the table, "a public relations coup," their leaders said, "a first step," the government; the addendum talks of 2024–26 and the Okandjoze chiefs' meeting with the president of 2 March 2026 on the remains; the Genocide Remembrance Day of 28 May observed for the first time in 2025; the German community of 30,000 and the street names changed |
| Legal system | Roman-Dutch law of the South African tradition with the customary law of the traditional authorities — the Supreme Court under Chief Justice Peter Shivute since 2004, the High Court; the death penalty forbidden by the Constitution of 1990; the High Court's ruling of 21 June 2024 that struck down the colonial sodomy laws and the Marriage Act of October 2024 that bars the recognition of same-sex marriages, the Supreme Court's ruling of 2023 that had recognized the foreign ones; the "Fishrot" trial of the fishing quotas of 2019, the former ministers Esau and Shanghala in custody since; the Anti-Corruption Commission; the FATF grey list since February 2024 and the EU's high-risk list since 10 June 2025 |
| Local government | 14 regional councils elected by constituency on 26 November 2025 and 57 local authorities elected by list the same day, the mayors of the towns; the traditional authorities of the eight Ovambo kingdoms, the Herero paramount chiefs, the Nama captaincies and the San recognized by the act of 2000; the Rehoboth Basters' old self-government |
| Defense | The Namibian Defence Force of about 12,000 — the army of the former PLAN guerrillas and the SWATF soldiers merged in 1990, the navy of Walvis Bay of the Chinese-built ships, the air force of the Chengdu jets; the intervention in the Congo war of 1998–2002 with Angola and Zimbabwe; the Caprivi secession attack of 2 August 1999 at Katima Mulilo put down and the treason trial of twenty years; the army in Etosha's fire of 2025; the peacekeepers of Darfur; the Israeli and the Russian ties of the training |
| Foreign policy | The non-alignment of the liberation generation — the Russia, China and North Korea of the president's exile years in the BTI's account, the Chinese of the uranium and the port, the North Koreans who built the museum, the Heroes' Acre and the State House; South Africa the neighbor of the customs union and the rand; Angola of the Kunene; Germany of the past, the aid and the tourists; the European Union of the fish, the beef and the hydrogen; the United States of the Millennium compact and the AGOA; the Palestinians and the Western Sahara backed at the UN; the SADC, its parliament seated in Windhoek |
| United Nations | Member since 23 April 1990; the UN Council for Namibia of 1967–90 that governed the territory in name from New York, the UNTAG mission of 1989–90 that ran the first election, Resolution 435 of 29 September 1978; the Security Council seat of 1999–2000; the votes of the small states |
| Other memberships | The African Union; the Southern African Development Community (1990), its parliamentary forum at Windhoek; the Southern African Customs Union of 1910 and the Common Monetary Area; the Commonwealth (1990); the Non-Aligned Movement; the WTO (1995); the African Continental Free Trade Area; the Kavango–Zambezi transfrontier conservation area |
Economy
| GDP (nominal) | About US$14.7 billion (2025, IMF) |
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| GDP per capita | About US$4,400 (2025) |
| GDP per capita (PPP) | About US$12,300 (2025) |
| GDP growth | About 3.7% in 2024 and 3.8% in 2025, about 2.4% expected in 2026 as the diamonds slumped and the drought's harvest returned; inflation about 3.5%; unemployment 36.9%; the Namibian dollar at about 17 with the rand; the IMF's projection of a GDP approaching N$400 billion by 2031 on the oil |
| Economy by sector | Primary about 21%, the mining about 12% and the farming and fishing the rest; secondary about 16%; tertiary about 63%, the government the largest employer |
| Currency | Namibian dollar (NAD), pegged to the rand |
| Mining | Uranium the first export at 22% — Rössing of 1976 under China's CNNC, Husab of 2016 under CGN, the second-largest uranium mine in the world, Langer Heinrich reopened in 2024, the third producer of the world after Kazakhstan and Canada; gold at 16%, B2Gold's Otjikoto and Navachab; diamonds at 12%, the marine diamonds of Debmarine Namibia, the joint venture of De Beers and the state, the Benguela Gem ship of 2022 the largest diamond vessel afloat, the land mines of Namdeb near their end, the slump of the diamond price of 2024–25 and the lab-grown stones; zinc, copper, lead, tin, lithium of Uis with the export ban on the unprocessed ore of 2023, the rare earths of Lofdal; the mining about a tenth of GDP and half of exports |
| Fishing | The Benguela's hake, horse mackerel, pilchard and monkfish, the fourth export at 11% — the Walvis Bay and Lüderitz fleets, the hake to Spain, the Fishrot scandal of 2019 of the quotas sold to Iceland's Samherji for bribes that jailed the ministers of fisheries and justice; the Marine Resources Act and the quotas of the Namibian companies |
| Farming and the land | Cattle — the beef of the free-range herds of the plateau to Europe under the EU quota and to China and the United States, the Meatco abattoirs; the karakul lambs of the pelts of the south; the sheep and goats of the Nama; the mahangu millet and the maize of the north, the grapes of the Orange at Aussenkehr, the dates; the game farms and the trophy hunting; the drought of 2024 that emptied the pastures; 70% of the people on the land in some way |
| The oil and the hydrogen | The Venus project of TotalEnergies toward its investment decision of late 2026 and its first oil of 2029–30, the transformation the country waits for, the €12 billion of state revenue over its life by the company's count; the Kudu gas of BW Energy; the green hydrogen — Hyphen Hydrogen Energy's US$10 billion plan of 2021 for the Tsau ǁKhaeb park at Lüderitz, 2 million tons of ammonia a year from the sun and wind for Europe and Japan, the offtake and the finance still to come, HyIron's Oshivela plant of 2025 near Arandis making the world's first green iron; Dangote's fuel pipeline plan from Namibia of October 2026; "not a choice between them," the president |
| Tourism | About 1 million visitors a year — the Germans, the South Africans, the Europeans of the self-drive safaris, Sossusvlei, Etosha, the Skeleton Coast, Swakopmund and the Fish River Canyon; the community conservancies and the lodges; about a tenth of GDP with the jobs of the lodges and the guides |
| Trade | Exports about N$126 billion in 2025 — uranium, gold, diamonds, fish, the re-exported fuel, the beef and the zinc — to South Africa at 23%, China 18%, Botswana 11%, Zambia 10%, Spain; imports of N$151 billion, the fuel, the cars and the food from South Africa above all; Walvis Bay the corridor port of Botswana, Zambia and the Congo |
| Public finances | Public debt about 70% of GDP by the IMF's count of 2026, from 60% in 2024 and the 30% ceiling of the old policy, the junk ratings of Moody's and Fitch since 2017 and the outlooks improved; the budget of about N$106 billion of 2026–27, the debt service its third-largest line; the Welwitschia sovereign wealth fund of 2022 for the oil and the minerals; the social grants, the free tertiary tuition from January 2026, the state funerals frozen in 2025 for their cost; the customs union's revenue a third of the budget |
| Income classification | Lower-middle income (World Bank) since 2025, upper-middle before; a country of the world's highest inequality |
Transport & infrastructure
| Main airports | Hosea Kutako International Airport 45 km east of Windhoek, about a million passengers, the Frankfurt, Johannesburg, Addis Ababa and Doha flights; Walvis Bay; Eros of the light aircraft and the charters; the airstrips of the lodges, the Sossusvlei and the Skeleton Coast by air |
|---|---|
| Airlines | No national carrier — Air Namibia of 1946 liquidated in February 2021 with its debts; FlyNamibia of 2019 the domestic and regional airline; Airlink of South Africa, Eurowings Discover, Ethiopian, Qatar Airways and Lufthansa the links; the Proflight of Zambia |
| Main port | Walvis Bay — the deepwater port of the Cape Colony and South Africa until 1994, the container terminal of 2019 built by China on reclaimed land, the corridor port of the Trans-Kalahari and the Walvis Bay–Ndola–Lubumbashi routes for Botswana, Zambia and the Congo, the salt works and the fishing harbor; Lüderitz of the fishing, the diamonds and the hydrogen; the oil base to come |
| Railways | About 2,600 km (1,600 mi) of Cape gauge — TransNamib on the German and South African lines from Walvis Bay through Windhoek to Keetmanshoop and the South African border, the northern line to Tsumeb and Ondangwa extended to Oshikango in 2012, the Lüderitz line reopened, the Trans-Kalahari railway to Botswana's coal planned; the desert express of the tourists; the freight of the ore and the fuel |
| Roads | About 48,000 km (30,000 mi), about 8,000 paved and the rest the graded gravel of the self-drive tourists — the B1 from the Angolan border through Windhoek to the Orange, the B2 to Walvis Bay, the Trans-Kalahari Highway to Botswana and Johannesburg, the Trans-Caprivi to Zambia; the best roads of Africa by the World Economic Forum's ranking; the driving on the left; the crash of the police van and the prison bus of August 2025 with 14 dead |
| The desert | The Sossusvlei road of the dunes, the Skeleton Coast gate of the skull and crossbones, the Moon landscape of the Swakop, the salt road of the coast; the pipelines of the Kunene water and the uranium mines; the Ruacana hydro and the solar of the plateau |
History in dates
| c. 25,000 BC | The Apollo 11 cave paintings — the oldest art of Africa |
|---|---|
| c. 4000 BC | The Twyfelfontein engravings |
| 1486 | Diogo Cão's cross at Cape Cross |
| 1488 | Bartolomeu Dias at Lüderitz — Angra Pequena |
| 1840 | Jonker Afrikaner at Windhoek |
| 1878 | Britain annexes Walvis Bay |
| 1884 | German South West Africa, 7 August |
| 1890 | Windhoek founded, 18 October; the Caprivi Strip |
| 1904 | The Herero rise, 12 January; Waterberg, 11 August; the extermination order, 2 October |
| 1908 | The diamonds of Kolmanskop |
| 1915 | South Africa takes the colony, 9 July |
| 1920 | The League of Nations mandate, 17 December |
| 1959 | The Old Location shooting, 10 December |
| 1960 | SWAPO founded, 19 April |
| 1966 | The UN ends the mandate, 27 October; the war begins at Ongulumbashe, 26 August |
| 1968 | Namibia named by the UN, 12 June |
| 1971 | The ICJ rules South Africa's presence illegal, 21 June |
| 1978 | Cassinga, 4 May; Resolution 435, 29 September |
| 1988 | The Tripartite Accord, 22 December |
| 1989 | The election, 7–11 November — SWAPO 57% |
| 1990 | The Constitution, 9 February; independence, 21 March — Nujoma |
| 1994 | Walvis Bay returned, 1 March |
| 1999 | The Caprivi attack, 2 August |
| 2005 | Pohamba president, 21 March |
| 2015 | Geingob president |
| 2019 | The Fishrot scandal, November; SWAPO loses its two-thirds |
| 2021 | Air Namibia collapses, February; Germany's declaration, 28 May |
| 2022 | Venus and Graff found, February |
| 2023 | The census — 3,022,401 |
| 2024 | Geingob dies, 4 February; the grey list; the drought emergency, May; the election, 27–30 November |
| 2025 | Nujoma dies, 8 February; Nandi-Ndaitwah sworn, 21 March; Genocide Day, 28 May; Etosha burns, September; Ithete dismissed, 26 October; the local elections, 26 November; the Galp deal, 9 December |
| 2026 | Free tuition, January; the Venus plan under review, March; the swap approved, July; Heroes' Day at sixty, 26 August; TotalEnergies takes Mopane, 4 September; the Venus decision due, the last quarter |
Records & firsts
| The oldest desert on earth | The Namib, 55 million years |
|---|---|
| The second-lowest population density | About 3.7 per km² |
| The largest canyon of Africa | The Fish River, 160 km |
| The tallest dunes, by some counts | Dune 7 and Big Daddy, over 300 m |
| The oldest art of Africa | The Apollo 11 cave, 25,000 years |
| The first constitution to protect the environment | 1990 |
| A third of the world's cheetahs | About 2,500 |
| The largest meteorite on earth | Hoba, 60 tons |
| The world's richest marine diamonds | The Sperrgebiet seabed |
| The third uranium producer | Husab and Rössing |
| The first genocide of the twentieth century | 1904–08 |
| The second-highest inequality in the world | A Gini of 59 |
| The largest deepwater find of the decade | Venus, 2022 |
| The first woman president | 21 March 2025 |
Frequently asked questions
What is the official name of Namibia?
The Republic of Namibia — the state that won its independence from South Africa on 21 March 1990 after 75 years of South African rule, 24 of them in the bush war that SWAPO fought from Angola, and 106 years after Germany took it as German South West Africa and killed most of its Herero and Nama in the first genocide of the twentieth century. The name is the desert's: Namib, the "vast place" in the Khoekhoe language of the Nama, the strip of dunes and gravel along the Atlantic that is the oldest desert on earth; the name Namibia was given to the country by the United Nations in 1968, on the proposal of the nationalist Mburumba Kerina, in place of South West Africa.
What is the capital of Namibia?
Windhoek — "windy corner," on the hot springs of the central plateau at 1,700 m that the Nama chief Jonker Afrikaner settled in 1840 and the German officer Curt von François made the capital of the colony on 18 October 1890 — about 500,000 people in the city and half a million more around it, a fifth of the country, the Christuskirche of 1910 and the Tintenpalast of the parliament over the German colonial town, the Katutura township of the apartheid removals of 1959 its other half, the Independence Museum of North Korean design its newest landmark. Rundu on the Okavango, Walvis Bay of the port, Swakopmund of the German seaside, Oshakati and Ondangwa of the Ovambo north follow.
How big is Namibia, and how many people live there?
About 824,292 km² (318,261 sq mi) — twice the size of California, the thirty-fourth-largest country in the world — between the Atlantic and the Kalahari, with Angola to the north, Botswana to the east, South Africa to the south and Zambia at the tip of the Zambezi panhandle, the Namib along the coast and the plateau of the cattle and the game behind it. The census of 2023 counted 3,022,401 people, up 43 percent since 2011, and the estimate for 2026 is about 3.15 million — the second-least densely peopled country on earth after Mongolia at fewer than four to the square kilometer, half of them Ovambo and half in the towns; the inequality of its incomes is the world's second-highest after South Africa's.
What are the highest and lowest points of Namibia?
Königstein, 2,573 m (8,442 ft), the summit of the Brandberg, the "fire mountain" of granite in the Erongo region whose cliffs hold the White Lady and 45,000 other rock paintings; and the Atlantic. The Fish River Canyon of the south, 160 km long and 550 m deep, is the largest canyon of Africa; the dunes of Sossusvlei in the Namib Sand Sea rise 300 m and more, the tallest on earth by some counts; the Etosha pan is a salt flat of 4,800 km² that fills for a few weeks a year; and the only rivers that flow all year are the four on the borders, the Orange, the Kunene, the Okavango and the Zambezi.
What currency does Namibia use?
The Namibian dollar (ISO code NAD, N$), of 100 cents, issued by the Bank of Namibia since 15 September 1993 and pegged one to one to the South African rand, which is legal tender beside it under the Common Monetary Area of the two countries, Lesotho and Eswatini — about 17 to 18 to the U.S. dollar with the rand. Clocks keep Central Africa Time, UTC+2, all year since the country abolished its winter time in 2017; Namibia drives on the left, on the best roads of Africa by the World Economic Forum's ranking, most of them gravel.
Who governs Namibia?
President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah of SWAPO, the party that has ruled since independence, head of state and government since 21 March 2025 — the first woman in the office and the second in Africa elected directly to a presidency, the liberation-movement veteran of 72 who won the election of November 2024 with 58 percent against Panduleni Itula's 26 percent after a vote extended by three days for want of ballot papers, with Lucia Witbooi as vice president, Elijah Ngurare as prime minister and Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila as Speaker, a government of women at its top; SWAPO holds 51 of the 96 elected seats of the National Assembly and won back the towns in the local elections of November 2025. The question of her term is the oil: TotalEnergies' Venus field off the Orange River, the largest deepwater find of the decade, awaits the investment decision the company has promised for the end of 2026 and the fiscal terms the government must set for an industry it has never had. The next election is due in November 2029.
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