---
title: "Libya — capital, area, population and currency"
description: "Libya: capital Tripoli, area 1,759,540 km², population 7,458,555 (2025), currency Libyan dinar. Languages, time zones and calling code."
url: https://atoneplace.net/country/libya/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Libya

**Libya: Capital Tripoli**

1,759,540 km² · 7,458,555 people (2025) · Libyan dinar

About ninety percent desert, with the population concentrated on the Mediterranean coast. The Great Man-Made River is the largest irrigation project ever built: some 2,800 km of buried four-metre pipe drawing fossil water from the Nubian Sandstone aquifer under the Sahara.

## The facts

- **Capital:** Tripoli
- **Area:** 1,759,540 km² — 679,362 sq mi
- **Population:** 7,458,555 (2025)
- **Density:** 4.2 people per km²
- **Currency:** Libyan dinar (LYD, ل.د)
- **Official language:** Arabic
- **Time zone:** UTC+02:00
- **Calling code:** +218
- **Drives on the:** right
- **ISO codes:** LY · LBY
- **Continent:** Africa

## How it compares

- **By area:** 17 of 200
- **By population:** 106 of 200

> Population is the only figure on this page that dates — it is a 2025 estimate and will drift. Area, capital, currency, languages, calling code and driving side change rarely or never.

## Countries of a similar size

| Country | Area (km²) | Population |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Indonesia | 1,904,569 | 285,721,236 |
| Sudan | 1,861,484 | 51,662,147 |
| Libya ← | 1,759,540 | 7,458,555 |
| Iran | 1,648,195 | 92,417,681 |
| Mongolia | 1,564,116 | 3,568,978 |

## Common questions

### What is the capital of Libya?

Tripoli

### What currency does Libya use?

The Libyan dinar (LYD).

### How big is Libya?

1,759,540 km², or 679,362 square miles — 17 of 200 by area.

### Which side of the road does Libya drive on?

The right.

## Related pages

- [Indonesia](https://atoneplace.net/country/indonesia/)
- [Sudan](https://atoneplace.net/country/sudan/)
- [Iran](https://atoneplace.net/country/iran/)
- [Mongolia](https://atoneplace.net/country/mongolia/)
- [Nigeria](https://atoneplace.net/country/nigeria/)
- [Ethiopia](https://atoneplace.net/country/ethiopia/)
- [Egypt](https://atoneplace.net/country/egypt/)
- [Democratic Republic of the Congo](https://atoneplace.net/country/democratic-republic-of-the-congo/)
- [Tanzania](https://atoneplace.net/country/tanzania/)
- [South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country/south-africa/)
- [Kenya](https://atoneplace.net/country/kenya/)
- [Sudan](https://atoneplace.net/country/sudan/)

## Sources

- The World Factbook — Central Intelligence Agency (https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/) [Public domain (US Government)]
- World Bank Open Data — The World Bank (https://data.worldbank.org/) [CC BY 4.0]