The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), located on the Equator, shares nearly 9,000 km of borders with nine countries (South Sudan and Central African Republic to the North, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania to the East, Zambia and Angola to the South, Republic of Congo and the Angolan province of Cabinda to the West).
Official name: Democratic Republic of the Congo
Nature of the regime: Republic, semi-presidential system
Head of State: Félix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo (since January 24, 2019)
Head of Government: Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde Kyenge (since April 26, 2021)
Area: 2,345,410 km2 (80 times the size of Belgium and 4 times the size of France). The DRC is the most populated country in Central Africa and the largest country in sub-Saharan Africa, with an area equivalent to that of Western Europe.
Capital: Kinshasa
Other major cities: Lubumbashi, Mbuji-Mayi, Goma, Kananga, Kisangani, Bukavu, Matadi
Official language: French
National languages: Lingala, Kikongo, Tshiluba and Swahili
Cash : Congolese franc (1 EUR = 2214 CDF; 1 $ = 2044 CDF in December 2022)
National holiday: June 30
Population : 97.388 million inhabitants (2022). Projection: 278 million inhabitants by 2050.
Density : 38 inhabitants/km²
Population growth: + 3.2% (World Bank, 2019) with a young population of which those under fifteen years of age constitute 46%.
Life expectancy at birth: 60.7 years (UNDP, 2019)
Literacy rate (15 years and over): 77% (UNDP, 2019)
Religions: 95.9% Christianity, 1.8% agnosticism and atheism, 1.5% Islam, 0.7% popular religion (Source: Pew Research Center. The Global Religious Landscape 2023)
Human Development Index: Ranked 179th out of 191 countries worldwide (UNDP 2021)
Ratification of the AfCFTA (African Continental Free Trade Area) agreement: June 22, 2021
Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI): Accepted as a candidate country in February 2008 and declared a compliant country in July 2014. (Sources: AfDB, UN, World Bank)
Territorial organization: The DRC has 26 provinces (25 provinces under common law and the city-province of Kinshasa). Each province comprises decentralized territorial entities: the city, the commune, the sector, and the chiefdom.