France has 13 time zones, while almost all African countries have just one, except South Africa and DR Congo

Key Takeaways

  • France tops the world with 13 time zones, owing largely to its overseas territories spread across the globe.
  • The US and Russia follow closely, each spanning 11 time zones, reflecting their massive geographic spread.
  • In contrast, Africa remains highly unified, with just two countries, DR Congo and South Africa, operating two time zones each.
  • Most nations on the list, including Brazil, Mexico, and Spain, fall between 2–4 zones, underscoring how rare double-digit time zone coverage is.

Time zones reveal how geography and political reach shape global connectivity. France’s 13 zones make it the world’s most temporally diverse nation, driven less by its European landmass than by territories in the Pacific, Indian Ocean, and Caribbean. The United States and Russia, each with 11 zones, showcase how continental sprawl dictates timekeeping complexity. Other global powers like the UK and Australia (9 zones each) highlight overseas dependencies as drivers of multiplicity.

By contrast, Africa presents a strikingly simple picture: despite its vast landmass, nearly all countries observe just a single time zone. The exceptions are DR Congo, whose massive east-west span demands two, and South Africa, which uniquely straddles two zones for practical alignment. This continental cohesion stands in sharp contrast to the fragmented temporal maps of Europe and the Americas.

Source:

World Population Review

Period:

July 2025
HTML code to embed chart
Want a bespoke report?
Reach out
Click to copy HTML embed code
Tags
Related Insights
English language holds global lead with 1.5 billion speakers as Mandarin strengthens with 1.2 billion
  • English dominates globally with 1.5 billion speakers, nearly 300 million more than Mandarin Chinese.
  • Asian languages are highly represented, with Mandarin, Hindi, Arabic, Bengali, Indonesian, Urdu, Japanese, Marathi, Vietnamese, Telugu, and Turkish making up over half of the top 20.
  • Spanish and French stand out as major global languages, reflecting both native speakers and strong international adoption. African languages are emerging on the global stage, with Nigerian Pidgin (120.7M) and Hausa (94.4M) among the top 20.
  • The gap between top and bottom languages in the ranking is wide. English has over 15 times more speakers than Turkish, which closes the top 20 list.
São Tomé & Príncipe’s dobra ranks as Africa’s weakest currency against the US dollar as of July 2025
  • São Tomé & Príncipe’s dobra is the weakest African currency, trading at over 22,000 per US dollar.
  • Sierra Leone and Guinea follow closely, highlighting persistent monetary pressures in West Africa.
  • Nigeria’s naira, despite recent reforms, ranks 9th weakest, reflecting ongoing exchange rate volatility.
  • East African currencies such as the Ugandan shilling, Tanzanian shilling, and Rwandan franc also appear, showing regional vulnerability.
Egypt’s external debt interest payments hit a record $9.47 billion in 2023 after six-fold rise since 2016
  • From 1970 through the early 2000s, Egypt’s debt interest payments hovered mostly under $1.5 billion, with fluctuations tied to global oil shocks and debt rescheduling.
  • Payments remained relatively moderate, ranging between $0.7–$1.0 billion annually.
  • Following Egypt’s 2016 IMF programme and rising external borrowing, payments jumped dramatically, climbing from $1.53 billion in 2016 to $6.13 billion in 2022.
  • Interest payments hit an all-time high of $9.47 billion in 2023, underscoring the heavy burden of Egypt’s rapid debt accumulation and exposure to global financing costs.
Algeria leads Africa’s land mass rankings at 2.4 million km², more than 2× the size of Nigeria (924k km²)
  • Algeria is Africa’s largest country, covering 2.4 million km², slightly bigger than the Democratic Republic of Congo (2.3 million km²).
  • Sudan (1.9 million km²) and Libya (1.8 million km²) complete the top four, showing that North Africa dominates the list of largest territories.
  • Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, has a landmass of 923,800 km², placing it 14th in size, much smaller than its population ranking.
  • The smallest among the top 20 listed is South Sudan, with 619,700 km², less than one-third the size of Algeria.
Seychelles is Africa’s smallest nation, spanning just 452 km² in land mass
  • Seychelles is the tiniest country in Africa, covering only 452 km², smaller than the size of some global cities.
  • Island nations dominate the smallest group, with Seychelles, Comoros, Mauritius, and Cape Verde all under 5,000 km² each.
  • Gambia is the smallest mainland country, spanning 10,700 km², surrounded almost entirely by Senegal except its Atlantic coast.
  • Only 10 African countries have land areas under 30,000 km², with most being among the continent’s most densely populated.
Despite producing 33% fewer carats than Russia, Botswana's $3.3B production value nearly matched Russia’s $3.6B in 2023
  • Russia is the volume leader with 37.3M carats, nearly 1.5× Botswana’s 25.1M carats.
  • Botswana punches above its weight: though producing 33% fewer carats than Russia, its output value almost matches Russia's due to higher value per carat price.
  • Eight of the top 10 producers are African (Botswana, Angola, DR Congo, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Sierra Leone, Lesotho).
  • Low-volume producers like Namibia (2.4M ct → $1.2B) highlight how smaller deposits can yield high-value diamonds.
POPULAR TOPICS
SIGN UP TO OUR NEWSLETTER
Get periodic updates about the African startup space, access to our reports, among others.
Subscribe Here
Subscription Form
A product of Techpoint Africa. All rights reserved