Mali officially the Republic of Mali is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mali is the eighth-largest country in Africa with an area of over 1241238 square kilometres (479245 sq mi). The country is bordered to the north by Algeria to the east by Niger to the northwest by Mauritania to the south by Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast and to the west by Guinea and Senegal. The population of Mali is 21.9 million 67% of which was estimated to be under the age of 25 in 2017. Its capital and largest city is Bamako. The country has 13 official languages of which Bambara is the most commonly spoken.