From Little Senegal on Harlem's 116th Street to Columbus, Ohio and the Maryland suburbs, Senegalese families in the US call parents in Dakar, Touba and Thiès on Orange, Yas and Expresso mobiles, dialing nine digits exactly as written, with no area code and no zero to drop.
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Rates updated October 31, 2026
To reach a Senegal number from the United States, dial these three parts in order.
011 221 70 123 45 67
From any mobile, anywhere in the world, you can dial +221 70 123 45 67 instead. Press and hold 0 to type the +, and the phone picks the right access code for wherever you are.
Numbers in Senegal carry no leading trunk digit, so there is nothing to strip. 70 123 45 67 is dialed exactly as written, with +221 in front. Removing a digit here is what makes the call fail.
A Senegal mobile number is 9 digits after +221. If a call does not connect, count the digits first.
Only the first part changes. Your access code replaces the 011, then 221 and the number stay exactly the same.
A ~ means wait for the second dial tone before dialing the rest. It is not a digit you press.
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The 2024 American Community Survey counts about 42,500 Senegal-born residents in the United States - US Census Bureau. New York is the center of gravity: the five-year estimates place roughly a quarter of them in New York State, with the largest county communities in Manhattan, the Bronx and Brooklyn, followed by Franklin County, Ohio (Columbus), Montgomery County, Maryland and Essex County, New Jersey - US Census Bureau. In Manhattan the landmark is Little Senegal, the stretch of 116th Street in Harlem between St. Nicholas Avenue and Frederick Douglass Boulevard, where Wolof remains an everyday language - Senegalese Americans, Wikipedia.
The corridor has also grown quickly. US authorities recorded 20,231 arrests of Senegalese migrants crossing the southern border from July to December 2023, ten times the figure a year earlier, as word of a route through Nicaragua spread in Dakar; New York, home to the Senegalese Association of America in Harlem, has the largest Senegalese population of any US metro - VOA. Europe carries even more traffic: the UN counts about 177,000 Senegal-born residents in France, 127,000 in Italy and 101,000 in Spain, plus 145,000 in neighboring Gambia - UN DESA.
To call abroad from Senegal, people dial the international prefix 00, then the country code and number, in the form 00 CC NDC SN set out by the regulator - ARTP numbering plan via ITU. A relative in Dakar calling a US number dials 00 1 and the 10 digits, and on a mobile a + does the same job.
Where do those calls go? Mostly to the places Senegalese families have spread: France (+33), Italy (+39), Spain (+34) and neighboring Gambia (+220), each home to more than 100,000 Senegal-born people, then Gabon (+241), Côte d'Ivoire (+225) and Mali (+223), each with tens of thousands - UN DESA, as well as the US. Yet ordinary international calls placed from Senegalese mobiles are a tiny slice of traffic: in the second quarter of 2026, calls to foreign networks made up well under one percent of outgoing mobile voice minutes, with on-net calls taking about two thirds - ARTP. That suggests most international family conversation either runs over apps or is placed from abroad, which is why a call into Senegal matters so much.
Dial the US exit code 011, or press + if you are on a mobile or using a browser dialer.
Enter Senegal's country code, 221.
Dial all 9 digits of the Senegalese number exactly as written, for example 70 123 45 67. Do not add a 0 and do not remove any digit.
Check the result: +221 70 123 45 67, or 011 221 70 123 45 67 from a US landline.
Senegal has no trunk prefix. Numbers are nine digits both inside and outside the country, so you dial +221 and the full number as written - ARTP numbering plan via ITU. If the number you were given does not have exactly nine digits after +221, check it with your contact before dialing. Mobile numbers start with 7 and landlines with 3, and a Dakar landline begins 33 8. The short emergency numbers 17 (police) and 18 (fire) only work inside Senegal. Senegal's own exit code is 00, which only matters to people calling out of the country - ITU.
Mobile internet can be switched off, taking WhatsApp with it. Senegal's government cut mobile internet access on 5 February 2024, citing "hateful and subversive messages" on social networks, after an earlier restriction in June 2023 when supporters of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko clashed with security forces - Africanews. Mobile internet was suspended again on 13 February 2024 as authorities banned a protest march - France 24. During those windows, app calls over mobile data stop working. A regular call to a +221 number does not depend on mobile data, which makes it the reliable fallback whenever politics heats up.
Huge religious gatherings strain the networks. The Grand Magal of Touba, the Mouride pilgrimage held on the 18th of Safar in the Islamic calendar, drew more than 6 million participants in 2025 - Grand Magal of Touba, Wikipedia. The regulator treats such events as a known risk: it sends engineering teams to the main religious centers to test whether people can make, receive and hold calls, and to alert operators to incidents - ARTP. If your relative is in Touba for the Magal, be prepared for congested lines, and if a call fails, try again later in the day or once the crowds disperse.
Numbers change more often than you might expect. Senegal had 24.8 million mobile lines in June 2026 for a population of about 19.6 million, a penetration rate near 127 percent, and more than 98 percent of those lines were prepaid - ARTP. Penetration well above 100 percent means many people hold more than one line, so the number you saved last year may no longer be the one your contact answers. Keep a second number for each close relative, and confirm it whenever they mention a new SIM.
Senegal runs a closed, nine-digit plan: every number, fixed or mobile, is written as nine digits and dialed in full even for a local call, with no trunk prefix at all - ARTP numbering plan via ITU. That makes it one of the simplest countries to call. After +221 you dial exactly what your contact wrote down, such as 77 123 45 67 or 33 8xx xx xx, and the number goes in exactly as written, with nothing added or taken away.
The first digit tells you the type of line. Blocks where the first digit is 7 are reserved for mobile networks, 3 for fixed networks and 9 for converged services such as internet telephony. Within the fixed range, Sonatel's landlines split by geography: 338 covers the Dakar region and 339 the other regions - ARTP numbering plan via ITU. So a number beginning 33 8 is almost certainly in greater Dakar, and one beginning 33 9 could be in Thiès, Saint-Louis or Ziguinchor.
The regulator's own switchboard shows the pattern: +221 33 869 0369, a Dakar landline. Two short numbers matter only inside the country: 17 for police and 18 for the fire service, which the plan states cannot be called from outside Senegal - ARTP numbering plan via ITU.
Orange, operated by Sonatel, dominates with 55.2 percent of mobile lines, followed by Yas at 24.4 percent, Expresso at 15.0 percent, the virtual operator Promobile at 5.4 percent and Hayo at 0.1 percent (June 2026) - ARTP. Orange also runs nearly all fixed lines, 99.3 percent of about 648,000 - ARTP.
The prefixes map neatly onto those operators: 77 and 78 are Sonatel's Orange mobiles, 76 belongs to Yas, 70 to Expresso, 72 to Hayo and 75 is reserved for virtual operators such as Promobile - ARTP numbering plan via ITU. The 76 range has worn three brand names. In 2016 the regulator listed it under Sentel GSM "Tigo", in 2022 under Free Senegal, and new 76 blocks went in 2023 to Saga Africa Holdings, the company behind the brand - ARTP numbering plan via ITU, which the regulator's 2026 market reports list as Yas - ARTP. A relative who says they are "on Tigo" or "on Free" has a 76 number that you dial exactly as before.
Growth keeps adding new blocks inside those ranges, such as Expresso's 7011 and 7066 and Sonatel's 7865 to 7870 in 2022 and 2023, so an unfamiliar-looking 70 or 78 number is normal, not a mistake.
Money and calls travel together between Senegal and its emigrants. Personal remittances were worth about 10.6 percent of Senegal's GDP in 2023 - World Bank. Outgoing international minutes from Senegalese mobile networks are only a fraction of one percent of voice traffic - ARTP, which suggests that in many families the person in Paris, Milan, Madrid or New York is the one who places the call.
The lines at the other end are overwhelmingly prepaid: 24.4 million of 24.8 million mobile lines in June 2026 - ARTP. A relative whose credit has run low may not be able to call you back, so if you miss each other, it is usually easier for you to try again than to wait.
Timing follows the rhythm of the week. Senegalese people are predominantly Muslim - Senegal, Wikipedia, so Friday around the midday prayer and evenings during Ramadan are best avoided for a long call, while Sunday afternoons in Dakar, late morning on the US East Coast, tend to suit families on both sides.
French is Senegal's official language, but it is understood by only a minority of the population, and Wolof acts as the lingua franca alongside French, especially in Dakar; Pulaar and Serer are also widely spoken - Senegal, Wikipedia. For a family call that means Wolof, or the language of the family's region. For a bank, ministry, hospital or hotel in Dakar, expect the switchboard to answer in French.
If you are calling an office rather than a person, look for its 33 8 landline if it has one, and call during the Dakar working day, which runs from early morning to about 1pm on the US East Coast. Fixed lines are a small network, about 648,000 lines nationwide, 90 percent of them residential - ARTP, so a mobile number is often the only way to reach a small business or trader.
In the US, Wolof-speaking community life is concentrated in New York, where Little Senegal in Harlem keeps the language in daily use - Senegalese Americans, Wikipedia.
Senegal's country code is +221, and every Senegalese number, mobile or landline, has exactly nine digits - ARTP numbering plan via ITU. From the US you dial 011 221 followed by the nine digits, for example 011 221 77 123 45 67, or +221 77 123 45 67 on a mobile. There is no area code to add and no trunk 0 to remove.
No. Unlike many countries, Senegal has no trunk prefix: numbers are written and dialed as the same nine digits at home and abroad. Dial +221 and the number exactly as your contact wrote it. Senegalese numbers begin with 3, 7, 8 or 9, never 0, so a number that looks different should be checked with your contact first.
Senegal is on GMT (UTC+0) all year and does not use daylight saving time - Time in Senegal, Wikipedia. That makes it 4 hours ahead of US Eastern and 7 ahead of Pacific while US daylight saving time is in effect (8 March to 1 November in 2026) - NIST, and 5 and 8 hours ahead the rest of the year. Noon in New York is 4pm or 5pm in Dakar.
A 76 number belongs to the operator now branded Yas, known earlier as Free and, before that, as Tigo - ARTP numbering plan via ITU. 77 and 78 are Orange (Sonatel), 70 is Expresso and 75 is used by virtual operators such as Promobile. The brand changes do not affect dialing: you still dial +221 and all nine digits.
Apps depend on mobile data, and Senegal's authorities have cut mobile internet during political unrest, including in June 2023 - Africanews and twice in February 2024 - France 24. A regular call to the person's +221 mobile number does not need data, so it is the dependable way to get through at those moments.
Dial 011 221 (or +221) and the nine-digit landline as written. Sonatel landlines in the Dakar region begin 33 8, while those in other regions begin 33 9, so a Dakar office number looks like +221 33 8xx xx xx. There is no separate city code to add, and nothing to remove.
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