Brunei is a small country in the northwest of the island of Borneo, in Southeast Asia. Its government uses the name Brunei Darussalam. Counting both of its separate parts, it measures about 145 kilometers (90 miles) from west to east.

Size

Brunei's national statistics office describes the country as lying between longitudes 114°04' and 115°23' east and latitudes 4°00' and 5°05' north. Close to the equator, those longitudes are about 145 kilometers apart, and those latitudes about 120 kilometers (75 miles) apart. So Brunei is wider from west to east than it is long from north to south.

The country covers 5,765 square kilometers (2,226 square miles) and has about 161 kilometers (100 miles) of coastline on the South China Sea. On land it borders only the Malaysian state of Sarawak, which surrounds it and splits it into two parts.

Size comparisons

Brunei is about as wide as three and a half marathons laid end to end. A marathon is 42.195 kilometers (26.2 miles).
Rwanda, about 230 kilometers (140 miles) across from west to east, is a little more than one and a half times as wide as Brunei.
By area, Rwanda is about four and a half times as large as Brunei.
The Grand Canyon, about 450 kilometers long when measured along its river, is about three times as long as Brunei is wide.
Earth, 12,742 kilometers (7,918 miles) across, is about 90 times as wide as Brunei.

A country in two parts

Brunei is divided into four districts. Belait, Tutong and Brunei-Muara make up the larger western part. Temburong makes up the eastern part and is cut off from the rest of the country by Sarawak.

The capital, Bandar Seri Begawan, is in Brunei-Muara district and includes Kampong Ayer, a water village. Most people live in the west. In 2025, about 332,700 of Brunei's 458,600 people lived in Brunei-Muara district, and only about 9,500 lived in Temburong.

People and economy

Brunei became independent on January 1, 1984. Malay is the official language, and English is also widely used. Malays are the largest ethnic group, almost three-quarters of the population in 2025.

Oil and gas are a large part of the economy. In 2025 the oil and gas sector produced 46 percent of the value added by the whole economy, measured at that year's prices.

Sources

Brunei Darussalam Statistical Yearbook 2025. Department of Economic Planning and Statistics, Brunei Darussalam, 2026.
Brunei Darussalam Key Indicators 2025. Department of Economic Planning and Statistics, Brunei Darussalam, 2026.
Rwanda: Subnational Administrative Boundaries. National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda and UN OCHA, Humanitarian Data Exchange, 2022.
About Rwanda. Government of Rwanda.
Marathon. World Athletics.
Park Statistics. Grand Canyon National Park, National Park Service.
Earth Fact Sheet. NASA, 2024.

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