Flexi Says: The coordination number is the number of ions that immediately surround an ion of the opposite charge within a crystal lattice. If you examine the figure below, you will see that there are six chloride ions immediately surrounding a single sodium ion. The coordination number of sodium is 6. Likewise, six sodium ions immediately surround each chloride ions, making the coordination number of chloride also equal to 6. Because the formula unit of sodium chloride displays a 1:1 ratio between the ions, the coordination numbers must be the same.
