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Port Louis, capital of Mauritius: facts and figures

Port Louis is the capital of Mauritius. It has about 150,000 residents, which makes it the 161st most populous capital of the 172 in DailyGeo's atlas, and it sits 0 m above sea level. Its nearest neighbouring capital is Antananarivo, 1,056 km away.

Key figures

FigureValue
CountryMauritius
ContinentAfrica
City population150,000 residents
World rank by population161st of 172
Elevation0 m
Founded1735
Time zoneIndian/Mauritius
Coordinates20.16° S, 57.50° E
Country population1,243,741 residents
Country GDP16.2 billion US dollars
GDP per capita$12,991
Life expectancy73.8 years
Internet users73.3 %
Big Mac pricenot reported

Climate through the year

Port Louis averages 22.4 °C from June to August and 26.8 °C from December to February. July is the coldest month of the year and January the warmest, and the city receives 967 mm of precipitation in an average year.

Monthly means from ERA5 reanalysis, 2015 to 2024.
MonthMean temperature
January26.9 °C
February26.9 °C
March26.8 °C
April26.0 °C
May24.4 °C
June22.9 °C
July22.2 °C
August22.2 °C
September22.8 °C
October24.1 °C
November25.4 °C
December26.6 °C

What makes it stand out

  • Size: 3rd least populous capital in Africa (150,000 residents).
  • Elevation: lowest-lying capital in Africa (0 m).
  • Wealth: capital of the richest country per head in Africa ($12,991).
  • Isolation: most isolated capital in Africa (1,056 km).

Nearest capitals

Distances are great-circle distances between city centres, which is what the Capitals game measures when it tells you how far a guess was from the answer. Antananarivo is the closest capital to Port Louis.

CapitalCountryDistance
AntananarivoMadagascar1,056 km
MoroniComoros1,788 km
LilongweMalawi2,610 km
MaputoMozambique2,626 km
HarareZimbabwe2,790 km

How to remember it

Reading a figure once rarely fixes it in memory. Attach Port Louis to a place and a number you already know: it is 1,056 km from Antananarivo, and it is the 161st largest capital in the atlas. Then practise retrieving it. DailyGeo Capitals gives you one mystery capital a day with distance, direction, language and population clues, the memorising method explains the review schedule, and the capitals index lists all 172.

To see how Mauritius compares with every other country on figures like these, the richest countries by GDP per capita ranks them on geopolitix, a country-ranking game by the same maker as DailyGeo.

Sources

  • City population and coordinates: DailyGeo's own game data, the same figures the Capitals game plays with. Population follows the urban area rather than the commune, which is why no density is quoted.
  • Temperature and rainfall: ten-year means (2015 to 2024) computed from ERA5 reanalysis, retrieved through Open-Meteo. Hersbach, H., et al. (2020). The ERA5 global reanalysis. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society.
  • Elevation: terrain height at the city's coordinates in the Copernicus DEM, read through Open-Meteo rather than taken from a curated claim.
  • Time zone: resolved from the same coordinates.
  • Country figures: the World Bank, latest reported year for each series: Country GDP, GDP per capita, Country population, Life expectancy, Internet users.
  • Founding date: Wikidata, earliest recorded founding claim.
  • This capital elsewhere: Wikipedia, UNdata, Wikidata.
  • Method and limits: How this data was collected explains how each figure was collected and what it does not cover.

The short answer

Port Louis is the capital of Mauritius, in Africa, with about 150,000 residents, averaging 22.4 °C from June to August and 26.8 °C from December to February.

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Frequently asked questions

What is the capital of Mauritius?

Port Louis is the capital of Mauritius. It has about 150,000 residents and lies in Africa.

How many people live in Port Louis?

About 150,000, which ranks Port Louis 161st of the 172 capitals in DailyGeo's atlas by city population.

What is the weather like in Port Louis?

Port Louis averages 22.4 °C from June to August and 26.8 °C from December to February, with 967 mm of precipitation a year. These are ten-year means from ERA5 reanalysis.

How expensive is Port Louis?

GDP per capita in the country is $12,991, the latest year the World Bank reports.

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