Quality of life comparison

compared to

If you lived in Djibouti instead of Mauritania, you would:

Economy

be 33.6% less likely to live below the poverty line

In Mauritania, 31.8% live below the poverty line as of 2019. In Djibouti, however, that number is 21.1% as of 2017.

be 2.5 times more likely to be unemployed

In Mauritania, 10.5% of adults are unemployed as of 2023. In Djibouti, that number is 26.3% as of 2023.

Life

be 49.7% less likely to die during childbirth

In Mauritania, approximately 465.0 women per 100,000 births die during labor as of 2020. In Djibouti, 234.0 women do as of 2020.

have 19.9% fewer children

In Mauritania, there are approximately 27.2 babies per 1,000 people as of 2024. In Djibouti, there are 21.8 babies per 1,000 people as of 2024.

Basic Needs

be 32.7% more likely to have access to electricity

In Mauritania, approximately 49% of people have electricity access (90% in urban areas, and 1% in rural areas) as of 2022. In Djibouti, that number is 65% of people on average (54% in urban areas, and 36% in rural areas) as of 2022.

be 16.9% more likely to have internet access

In Mauritania, approximately 59.0% of the population has internet access as of 2021. In Djibouti, about 69.0% do as of 2021.

Expenditures

spend 41.2% less on healthcare

Mauritania spends 3.4% of its total GDP on healthcare as of 2020. In Djibouti, that number is 2.0% of GDP as of 2020.

spend 89.5% more on education

Mauritania spends 1.9% of its total GDP on education as of 2020. Djibouti spends 3.6% of total GDP on education as of 2018.

Geography

see 58.4% less coastline

Mauritania has a total of 754 km of coastline. In Djibouti, that number is 314 km.

The statistics above were calculated using the following data sources: The World Factbook.

Djibouti: At a glance

Djibouti is a sovereign country in Africa, with a total land area of approximately 23,180 sq km. The French Territory of the Afars and the Issas became Djibouti in 1977. Hassan Gouled APTIDON installed an authoritarian one-party state and proceeded to serve as president until 1999. Unrest among the Afar minority during the 1990s led to a civil war that ended in 2001 with a peace accord between Afar rebels and the Somali Issa-dominated government. In 1999, Djibouti's first multiparty presidential elections resulted in the election of Ismail Omar GUELLEH as president; he was reelected to a second term in 2005 and extended his tenure in office via a constitutional amendment, which allowed him to begin a third term in 2011. Djibouti occupies a strategic geographic location at the intersection of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden and serves as an important shipping portal for goods entering and leaving the east African highlands and transshipments between Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. The government holds longstanding ties to France, which maintains a significant military presence in the country, and has strong ties with the United States. Djibouti hosts several thousand members of US armed services at US-run Camp Lemonnier.
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How big is Djibouti compared to Mauritania? See an in-depth size comparison.

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