Located in the westernmost part of the African continent, Senegal is bordered by Mauritania, Mali, Guinea, and Guinea-Bissau. The West African country enjoys a dry tropical climate and has a population of 16.7 million people, a quarter of whom live in the Dakar area.
Senegal is divided into 14 regions, each administered by a regional council, with Dakar as its capital. The official language of Senegal is French, and the currency is the Communauté financière d’Afrique (Financial Community of Africa or CFA) franc (XOF).
The country lies at an ecological boundary where semiarid grassland, oceanfront, and tropical rainforest converge; this diverse environment has endowed Senegal with a wide variety of plant and animal life. It is from this rich natural heritage that the country’s national symbols were chosen: the baobab tree and the lion.
