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CIV · Country dossier

Côte d'Ivoire

ECOWAS member President of the Ivory Coast
Parties registered
41
Heads of state
5
Realized coups
2
Memberships
29
Elections
15
Court cases
4
01

Leadership & governance

Current head of state

Alassane Ouattara Alassane Ouattara President of the Ivory Coast In office 2010–present · 15.7y PartyDemocratic Party of Côte d'Ivoire – African Democratic Rally Born 1941 · took office at 68 Dario Pignatelli / European Union · Attribution

Alassane Ouattara

President of the Ivory Coast

Since 2010 15.7 years in office

Governance indicator

-0.47

World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators, composite of six dimensions · 2024

Chamber
National Assembly
Seats
255
Speaker
Active alliances
29
02

Heads of state

Félix Houphouët-Boigny Félix Houphouët-Boigny President of the Ivory Coast In office 1960–1993 · 33.1y PartyDemocratic Party of Côte d'Ivoire – African Democratic Rally Born 1905 · took office at 55 GPO · Public domain
Henri Konan Bédié Henri Konan Bédié President of the Ivory Coast In office 1993–1999 · 6y PartyDemocratic Party of Côte d'Ivoire – African Democratic Rally Born 1934 · took office at 59 Benoît Bourgeois / European Communities, 1997 / EC - Audiovisual Service · CC BY 4.0
Robert Guéï Robert Guéï President of the Ivory Coast In office 1999–2000 · 0.8y PartyDemocratic Party of Côte d'Ivoire – African Democratic Rally Born 1941 · took office at 58 Took power coup 1999-12-24 BeraDigle · CC0
Laurent Gbagbo Laurent Gbagbo President of the Ivory Coast In office 2000–2011 · 10.5y PartyMouvement des Générations Capables Born 1945 · took office at 55 Took power coup 2000-10-25 Zenman · CC BY-SA 3.0
Alassane Ouattara Alassane Ouattara President of the Ivory Coast In office 2010–present · 15.7y PartyDemocratic Party of Côte d'Ivoire – African Democratic Rally Born 1941 · took office at 68 Dario Pignatelli / European Union · Attribution
Term Began with a realized coup In office Realized coup — dated

The scale spans every dated record held for this country, so it may begin before the first leader on file — a gap at the left means coups are recorded for years where no office-holder is. Coup markers link to the Cline Center source.

  1. 2010 Alassane Ouattara Alassane Ouattara President of the Ivory Coast In office 2010–present · 15.7y PartyDemocratic Party of Côte d'Ivoire – African Democratic Rally Born 1941 · took office at 68 Dario Pignatelli / European Union · Attribution Alassane Ouattara In office 15.7y
  2. 20002011 Laurent Gbagbo Laurent Gbagbo President of the Ivory Coast In office 2000–2011 · 10.5y PartyMouvement des Générations Capables Born 1945 · took office at 55 Took power coup 2000-10-25 Zenman · CC BY-SA 3.0 Laurent Gbagbo Coup 2000 10.5y
  3. 19992000 Robert Guéï Robert Guéï President of the Ivory Coast In office 1999–2000 · 0.8y PartyDemocratic Party of Côte d'Ivoire – African Democratic Rally Born 1941 · took office at 58 Took power coup 1999-12-24 BeraDigle · CC0 Robert Guéï Coup 1999 0.8y
  4. 19931999 Henri Konan Bédié Henri Konan Bédié President of the Ivory Coast In office 1993–1999 · 6y PartyDemocratic Party of Côte d'Ivoire – African Democratic Rally Born 1934 · took office at 59 Benoît Bourgeois / European Communities, 1997 / EC - Audiovisual Service · CC BY 4.0 Henri Konan Bédié 6y
  5. 19601993 Félix Houphouët-Boigny Félix Houphouët-Boigny President of the Ivory Coast In office 1960–1993 · 33.1y PartyDemocratic Party of Côte d'Ivoire – African Democratic Rally Born 1905 · took office at 55 GPO · Public domain Félix Houphouët-Boigny 33.1y
Photograph credits (5)
  • Alassane Ouattara Dario Pignatelli / European Union Attribution file
  • Laurent Gbagbo Zenman CC BY-SA 3.0 file
  • Robert Guéï BeraDigle CC0 file
  • Henri Konan Bédié Benoît Bourgeois / European Communities, 1997 / EC - Audiovisual Service CC BY 4.0 file
  • Félix Houphouët-Boigny GPO Public domain file

Portraits are the best freely-licensed images held by Wikimedia Commons for each leader, resolved by Wikidata identifier — they are not necessarily official state portraits. Leaders with no free image show initials instead.

03

Coup record

  • 2000
    2000-10-25 Leader fled
  • 1999
    1999-12-24 Military Leader fled

Source: Cline Center Coup d’État Project — realized events only.

04

Parliamentary elections

Recorded turnout

25–45%
34.1%2016 37.9%2021 35%2025

Points are the elections for which a turnout figure exists, in order — spacing is by sequence, not by year, and the gaps between them are simply unrecorded.

  • 2025
    Côte d'Ivoire National Assembly December 2025 Election Rally of Houphouetists for Democracy and Peace (RHDP)19676.9% Democratic Party of Côte d'Ivoire-African Democratic Rally (PDCI-RDA)3112.2% Independents239% The Buffalo – Victory for Development10.4%
    Seats
    255
    Turnout
    35%
    Women
    13.4%
    Parties won
  • 2023
    Côte d'Ivoire Senate September 2023 Election
    Seats
    66
    Turnout
    not recorded
    Women
    24.7%
    Parties won
  • 2021
    Côte d'Ivoire National Assembly March 2021 Election Rally of Houphouetists for Democracy and Peace (RHDP)13954.5% Democratic Party of Côte d'Ivoire-African Democratic Rally (PDCI-RDA)-Together for Democracy and Sovereignty (EDS)4919.2% Independents2610.2% Democratic Party of Côte d'Ivoire-African Democratic Rally (PDCI-RDA)239%
    Seats
    255
    Turnout
    37.9%
    Women
    14.2%
    Parties won
    8
  • 2018
    Côte d'Ivoire Senate March 2018 Election
    Seats
    66
    Turnout
    not recorded
    Women
    19.2%
    Parties won
  • 2016
    Côte d'Ivoire National Assembly December 2016 Election Rally of Houphouetists for Democracy and Peace (RHDP)16765.5% Independents7629.8% Union for Democracy and Peace in Côte d'Ivoire (UDPCI)62.4% Ivorian Popular Front (FPI)31.2%
    Seats
    255
    Turnout
    34.1%
    Women
    11.4%
    Parties won
    4
  • 2011
    Côte d'Ivoire National Assembly December 2011 Election
    Seats
    Turnout
    not recorded
    Women
    Parties won
  • 2000
    Côte d'Ivoire National Assembly December 2000 Election
    Seats
    Turnout
    not recorded
    Women
    Parties won
  • 1995
    Côte d'Ivoire National Assembly November 1995 Election
    Seats
    Turnout
    not recorded
    Women
    Parties won
  • 1990
    Côte d'Ivoire National Assembly November 1990 Election
    Seats
    Turnout
    not recorded
    Women
    Parties won
  • 1985
    Côte d'Ivoire National Assembly November 1985 Election
    Seats
    Turnout
    not recorded
    Women
    Parties won
  • 1980
    Côte d'Ivoire National Assembly November 1980 Election
    Seats
    Turnout
    not recorded
    Women
    Parties won
  • 1975
    Côte d'Ivoire National Assembly November 1975 Election
    Seats
    Turnout
    not recorded
    Women
    Parties won
  • 1970
    Côte d'Ivoire National Assembly November 1970 Election
    Seats
    Turnout
    not recorded
    Women
    Parties won
  • 1965
    Côte d'Ivoire National Assembly January 1965 Election
    Seats
    Turnout
    not recorded
    Women
    Parties won
  • 1960
    Côte d'Ivoire National Assembly January 1960 Election
    Seats
    Turnout
    not recorded
    Women
    Parties won

Source: ipu_parline.

05

Population & society

Fertility rate
4.2 2024
Life expectancy at birth
62.1 2024
Population growth
2.4 2024
Total population
31.9M 2024
Urban population percent
54.0 2024
Adult literacy rate
50.0 2021
Government expenditure on education percent of GDP
3.6 2024
Primary net enrollment ratio
90.3 2018
Secondary net enrollment ratio
40.2 2018

Ethnic groups

  • Akan 38%
  • Voltaique or Gur 22%
  • Northern Mande 22%
  • Kru 9.1%
  • Southern Mande 8.6%
  • other 0.3%

Religion

  • Muslim 42.9%
  • Catholic 17.2%
  • Evangelical 11.8%
  • Methodist 1.7%
  • other Christian 3.2%
  • animist 3.6%
  • other religion 0.5%
  • none 19.1%

Composition: CIA World Factbook, 2021 estimate. Shares are reproduced as published and are not renormalised, so a country may total slightly under or over 100%.

06

Organizational alignment

Regional & continental

  • AfCFTA
  • African Union
  • AFRISTAT 1993
  • Conseil de l'Entente
  • ECOWAS
  • Mano River Union
  • OHADA
  • La Francophonie 1970
  • OIC 2001

Global bodies & treaties

  • African Development Bank
  • Group on Earth Observations
  • International Bank for Reconstruction and Development
  • International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes
  • International Civil Defence Organisation
  • International Development Association
  • International Finance Corporation
  • International Telecommunication Union
  • Interpol
  • Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency
  • Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons
  • Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States
  • Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons
  • UNESCO
  • United Nations
  • Universal Postal Union
  • World Customs Organization
  • World Health Organization
  • World Meteorological Organization
  • World Trade Organization
07

International court cases

  • ICC proceedings on record

    Prosecutor v. Laurent Gbagbo

    Situation in Côte d'Ivoire

  • ICC proceedings on record

    Prosecutor v. Charles Blé Goudé

    Situation in Côte d'Ivoire

  • ICC proceedings on record

    Prosecutor v. Laurent Gbagbo And Charles Blé Goudé

    Situation in Côte d'Ivoire

  • ICC proceedings on record

    Prosecutor v. Simone Gbagbo

    Situation in Côte d'Ivoire

08

Parties & ideology

Ideological families

22 of 41 parties classified
  • Social democratic & socialist 15
  • Pan-African & nationalist 4
  • Liberal 4
  • Other & governance doctrine 2
  • Communist & Marxist 1
  • Conservative 1

Bars are counts of parties, scaled to the largest family. A party with several ideologies is counted in each, so families can total more than the number of parties classified. Family groupings are the ADG classification of the source’s free-text ideology labels, not the source’s own categories.

Register

Every party the observatory holds for this country, historical and current — the register is not filtered to parties currently holding seats.

  • African Democratic Rally African nationalism Félix Houphouët-Boigny
  • African Union of Internationalist Communist Workers communism
  • Alliance for a New Côte d'Ivoire
  • Alliance of Democratic Forces
  • Congrès panafricain pour la justice et l’égalité des peuples
  • Democratic Party of Côte d'Ivoire – African Democratic Rally African nationalism; conservatism; liberalism; populism Henri Konan Bédié
  • Eburnean Democratic Bloc
  • En Marche Côte d'Ivoire social democracy
  • Forces Nouvelles de Côte d'Ivoire
  • Front patriotique panafricain social democracy
  • Ivorian Popular Movement of the Great West
  • Ivorian Workers' Party democratic socialism
  • Les Acteurs de la Nouvelle Côte d'Ivoire social democracy
  • Liberty and Democracy for the Republic Party liberal democracy Mamadou Koulibaly
  • Mouvement des générations capables
  • Mouvement des Générations Capables left-wing nationalism; social democracy Pascal Affi N'Guessan
  • Mouvement pour la démocratie et la justice en Côte d'Ivoire
  • Mouvement progressiste de Côte d'Ivoire social democracy
  • Movement for Justice and Peace
  • Movement of the Forces of the Future
  • Nationalist Party
  • Nation pour la démocratie et la stabilité social democracy
  • Nouvel Ivoirien, Côte d'Ivoire Nouvelle social democracy Marie-Carine Bladi Dessihé
  • Nouvelle Convergence Citoyenne social democracy
  • Parti des hommes de valeur de Côte d'Ivoire social democracy
  • Parti des peuples africains-Côte d'Ivoire Pan-Africanism; democratic socialism
  • Parti écologique ivoirien
  • Parti Ivoirien des Droits Authentiques social democracy
  • Parti ivoirien pour le changement et le progrès social democracy
  • Patriotic Movement of Ivory Coast minority rights
  • People's Socialist Union democratic socialism; social democracy
  • Rally of the Republicans democratic liberalism Alassane Ouattara
  • Renouveau Démocratique
  • Revolutionary Communist Party of Côte d'Ivoire
  • Together for Democracy and Sovereignty
  • Together to Build
  • Union for Democracy and Peace in Côte d'Ivoire UDPCI liberalism; social liberalism Albert Mabri Toikeusse
  • Union for Ivory Coast
  • Union of Democrats of Côte d'Ivoire
  • Union pour le développement et les libertés
  • Union pour le rayonnement de la Côte d'Ivoire social democracy Kouamé N'Guessan Désiré
09

Census & statistical sources

Census, population and demographic documents the observatory has located for this country. These are links to the publishers’ own files — the library does not rehost them.