The Gambia
The Gambia is a small fragile country in West Africa. Despite the presence of the Gambia River, which flows through the middle of the country, only one-sixth of the land is arable and poor soil quality has led to the predominance of one crop - peanuts.
With 176 people per square kilometre and a population of 2.2 million, the country is also one of the most densely populated in Africa. Most of the population (57%) is concentrated around urban and peri-urban centres.
The key long-term development challenges facing The Gambia are related to its undiversified economy, poor governance framework, small internal market, limited access to resources, high population growth and lack of private sector job creation.
The Gambia Constitutional Review Commission is currently drafting a new constitution that is expected to take a significant step toward promoting gender equality. (Sources: UNICEF, UNAIDS and the World Bank 2019).
- total population (thousands)
- 2,280
- GNI per capita
- 710$
- Life expectancy at birth
- 62 years
- Human Development Index
- 174 (out of 189)
- Under-5 mortality rate
- 58‰
- Primary school net enrolment
- 76.82%
- Adult HIV prevalence (% of the population)
- 1.9%
- People of all ages living with HIV (thousands)
- 29,000
- improved access to safe water (% of the population)
- 78%
- moderate-severe underweight (% children under-5)
- 25%
related programmes
Current partners
