Which country is the least populated sovereign African country?

Seychelles is the least populated sovereign African country. The island republic is also Africa’s smallest sovereign state by land area, although its territory is spread across a large Indian Ocean archipelago.

Seychelles consists of 115 islands northeast of Madagascar. Most residents live on Mahé, the largest island, where the capital, Victoria, is located. The islands were uninhabited before French settlement in the eighteenth century, later became British-controlled, and gained independence in 1976.

Population estimates vary by year and source, but Seychelles remains far smaller in population than the other choices. Cape Verde and Comoros each have several hundred thousand residents, while Mauritius has more than a million. That makes Seychelles the canonical answer when the question specifies sovereign African countries.

A frequent source of confusion is Saint Helena, which has a smaller population but is a British Overseas Territory rather than a sovereign state. Seychelles is also sometimes described simply as Africa’s smallest country; that wording can refer to either area or population, and Seychelles holds both distinctions among sovereign states.