Cotonou
City in Benin: population, location, elevation, climate and landmarks.
Vue panoramique quartier cadjéhoun-Cotonou au Bénin 1: Adoscam, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)
Overview
Cotonou is a city in Benin, in Littoral. About 679,012 people live in the city proper, making it the 1st largest city of Benin in our atlas.
It lies at 6.37° N, 2.42° E, about 7 m (23 ft) above sea level, and keeps time on the Africa/Porto-Novo time zone. It sits inside the tropics.
Location
Red dot: Cotonou. Green dots: other major cities of Benin. Map data: Natural Earth.
Climate
Cotonou has a tropical savanna climate (Köppen Aw). The warmest month is usually Feb, with average highs near 30°C (86°F); the coolest nights come in Aug at about 23°C (73°F). Around 1,342 mm (53 in) of rain and snow falls in a typical year, most of it in Jun.
Bars: average daily high and low (°C) for each month; blue columns and figures: average precipitation (mm). Gridded 2001-2025 averages from NASA POWER, so mountain and coastal spots can differ from local station records.
Landmarks and places to see
Popular sights within a few kilometres of the city centre, ranked by how widely they are documented on Wikipedia.
What to eat in BeninNational dishes, street food, desserts and drinks on Intercontinental Chef.Nearby major cities
- Godomè · 8 km
- Abomey-Calavi · 12 km
- Ekpé · 13 km
- Porto-Novo · 25 km
- Bohicon · 98 km
- Abomey · 102 km
- Parakou · 331 km
- Djougou · 380 km
- Population, coordinates, elevation, time zone: GeoNames 2394819 (CC BY 4.0)
- Wikidata Q43595 (CC0)
- Climate: NASA POWER 2001-2025 climatology
Text written by Geographical Effect from these sources.
- Vue panoramique quartier cadjéhoun-Cotonou au Bénin 1: Adoscam, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)
- Lake Nokoue NASA: NASA, Public domain (Wikimedia Commons)
- Stade de l'amitié de Cotonou: Sdansou, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)
- Stade René Pleven d'Akpakpa: Sdansou, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)
- Monument de l'Amazone au Benin: Alfrednadjere, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)
- Ancien Pont Bridge: MVN, CC BY 2.0 (Wikimedia Commons)
