Sierra Leone
Name
| Official name | Republic of Sierra Leone; Sierra Leone the short form; Salone in Krio |
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| Former names | The Dominion of Sierra Leone (27 April 1961 – 19 April 1971), the Commonwealth realm of the queen; the Colony and Protectorate of Sierra Leone (1896–1961) — the Crown Colony of Freetown and the peninsula of 1 January 1808 and the Protectorate of the interior proclaimed on 31 August 1896; the Province of Freedom of Granville Sharp's settlers of 1787 and the Sierra Leone Company's Freetown of 1792 to 1808; the "Serra Lyoa" of Pedro de Sintra's chart of 1462; the Temne and Mende chiefdoms and the Mane invasions of the 1500s before them |
| Demonym | Sierra Leonean; Salone people in Krio |
| Meaning of the name | "Lion mountains" — Serra Lyoa, the name the Portuguese navigator Pedro de Sintra gave the hills of the Freetown peninsula in 1462, for the roar of the thunder over them by one account and their lion's shape by another, turned into the Spanish "Sierra Leona" on the maps of the 1500s and the English "Sierra Leone" by the 1600s; Freetown for the freed slaves the Sierra Leone Company settled in 1792; "Salone" the Krio form; no lions live in the country |
| Motto | "Unity, Freedom, Justice" — on the coat of arms of 1960 |
Quick facts
| Capital | Freetown — on the Freetown peninsula and the Sierra Leone River estuary, founded 11 March 1792; 1,050,301 at the census of 2015 and about 607,000 by the disputed mid-term count of 2021 the city rejected; more than a million by the common estimates, a fifth of the nation |
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| Largest cities | Freetown; Bo, the second city, of the south and the SLPP, about 175,000 at the census of 2015; Kenema of the east and the diamond trade, about 200,000; Makeni of the north and the APC, about 125,000; Koidu, the diamond town of Kono, about 125,000; Lunsar of the iron ore, Port Loko, Waterloo of the Freetown sprawl, Kabala of the Wara Wara hills, Kailahun, Magburaka, Moyamba, Bonthe of the island |
| Official language | English — the language of the government, the courts, Parliament and the schools since the colony; Krio, the English-based Creole of the Freetown settlers, the lingua franca spoken or understood by about 95% of the people and the mother tongue of about a tenth, the language of the markets, the radio and the streets, recognized as a national language; Mende of the south and Temne of the north each the first language of about a third, Limba, Kono, Kuranko, Susu, Fula, Mandingo, Loko, Sherbro, Kissi, Yalunka and Krim among the 16 or so languages of the census; Arabic of the Quranic schools |
| Currency | Leone — SLE, Le; 100 cents; the Bank of Sierra Leone; redenominated 1 July 2022 at 1,000 old (SLL) to 1 new; about 22 to 23 to the U.S. dollar |
| Time zone | Greenwich Mean Time, UTC±0; no summer time |
| Calling code | +232 |
| Internet domain | .sl |
| ISO 3166 codes | SL · SLE · 694 |
| Vehicle registration code | WAL — the West Africa Leone code of the colony's days |
| Driving side | Right — since 1 March 1971, when the country switched from the left of the British |
| Electricity | 230 V, 50 Hz; plug types D and G |
| Independence | 27 April 1961, from the United Kingdom — the Colony and Protectorate made a dominion under Prime Minister Sir Milton Margai of the SLPP, the Duke of Kent for the queen at the flag-raising in Freetown; 19 April 1971, the republic under Siaka Stevens; the Crown Colony of 1 January 1808 that the Sierra Leone Company's settlement of 1792 became |
| National days | 27 April, Independence Day, the parade of Freetown and the lantern festival; 19 April, Republic Day, not a holiday; 1 January; 18 February, Armed Forces Day; 8 March, International Women's Day, a holiday since 2018; Good Friday and Easter Monday; 1 May; the Muslim holidays of Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha and the Prophet's Birthday by the moon; 25 and 26 December; the Krio "Fambul Tik" of the new year and the Freetown Lantern Parade |
| Constitution | 1 October 1991 — the Constitution of Sierra Leone, Act No. 6 of 1991, approved by the referendum of August 1991 that ended the one-party state of 1978 and restored the multiparty republic: an executive president elected for five years and at most two terms with 55% in the first round or a runoff, the vice president on the ticket, a cabinet of ministers who may not sit in Parliament, a unicameral Parliament of the elected members and one paramount chief for each of the provincial districts, the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal and the High Court, the ombudsman; suspended in the coups of 1992 and 1997 and restored in 1996 and 1998; amended in 2008 and by the Constitutional Review of 2013 to 2017 whose recommendations still wait; the Constitution of independence of 1961, the republican constitution of 1971 and the one-party constitution of 1978 before it; the 2023 laws on the 30% of women in public life |
| Population | 7,092,113 at the census of 2015; 7,548,702 at the mid-term census of December 2021, the first digital count, whose Freetown figure the opposition disputed; about 8.9 million (2025 est., United Nations) and about 8.5 million by the encyclopedias — growing about 2% a year |
| Area | 71,740 km² (27,699 sq mi) by the Factbook count the family carries; 73,252 km² (28,283 sq mi) by the newer survey the encyclopedias cite, 73,132 of land and 120 of water; the 117th or 118th of the world; the islands of Sherbro, the Turtles and the Bananas |
Flag & national symbols
| National flag | A horizontal tricolor of three equal bands of light green, white and light blue, in the proportion 2:3 — the green for the agriculture, the mountains and the natural resources of the country, the white for unity and justice, the blue for the sea and the natural harbor of Freetown, "the hope that the harbor will contribute to peace" in the independence government's words; hoisted at midnight on 27 April 1961 in Freetown as the Union Jack came down, the flag of the dominion, the republic of 1971 and every government since, unchanged through the coups; the colors taken from the shield of the coat of arms of 1960, the green of the field, the white of the torches and the blue of the waves.Flag of Sierra Leone |
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| Coat of arms | A green shield with a golden lion passant beneath three torches of the flames of learning and a chief of the zigzag of the Lion Mountains, the base of wavy bars of blue and white for the sea and the harbor; two golden lions as the supporters, each holding an oil palm, the tree of the land; the motto "Unity, Freedom, Justice" on the scroll — granted by the royal warrant of Queen Elizabeth II of 1 December 1960 for the coming independence, in place of the colonial badge of the elephant and the palm; the lion the "Leone" of the name and the emblem of the British crown both |
| National anthem | "High We Exalt Thee, Realm of the Free" — the words of Clifford Nelson Fyle, the writer and teacher, and the music of John Joseph Akar, the broadcaster, actor and later ambassador, chosen in the competition of 1961 and adopted at independence on 27 April 1961; three verses of "great is the love we have for thee," the "Realm of the Free" of the freed settlers' colony; "God Save the Queen" the royal anthem to 1971 |
| National motto | "Unity, Freedom, Justice" |
| National colors | Green, white and blue — the flag's bands |
| National animal | The western chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes verus, declared the national animal by President Bio in 2019 with the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary of the Western Area forest as its home, the country one of the last strongholds of the subspecies with some 5,500 in the wild; the lion of the arms and the name, long gone from the land; the pygmy hippopotamus of Tiwai and Gola; the white-necked rockfowl; the Diana monkey; widely cited |
| National flower | None designated — the Cotton Tree of Freetown, the kapok under which the settlers of 1792 gave thanks, the emblem of the city and of the banknotes, that fell in the storm of 24 May 2023 at some 400 years old and whose stump the city keeps; the oil palm of the arms, the tree of the palm oil, the wine and the broom; the rice of the swamps and the uplands, the staple of every meal; the cassava; widely cited |
| National dish | Cassava leaves — "plasas" of the pounded leaves cooked in palm oil with fish, meat and the groundnut, on rice, the meal of every household; the groundnut stew, the krain-krain of the jute leaves, the potato leaves, the pepper soup, the jollof rice of the West African quarrel, the fufu of the cassava, the fried plantain, the "black-eyed beans" of the Sunday, the okra soup; the ginger beer, the poyo of the palm wine and the Star beer of the Sierra Leone Brewery of 1963; the "cookery" of the Krio of the "oleleh" bean pudding and the "akara"; none designated by law; widely cited |
| National sport | Football — the Leone Stars of the Sierra Leone Football Association of 1967, the Africa Cup of Nations of 1994, 1996 and 2021, the Siaka Stevens National Stadium of Freetown of 1979 built by the Chinese and rebuilt by them in 2023, the Premier League of East End Lions and Mighty Blackpool of the Freetown derby, Mohamed Kallon and Kei Kamara the players of Europe; the amputee football of the war's survivors, the Single Leg Amputee Sports Association; the athletics of Eunice Barber's French heptathlon gold of 2003, born in Freetown; the cricket, the basketball and the boxing of the Krio; no Olympic medal since 1968; none designated by law; widely cited |
| The Krio and the Bondo | The Krio culture of Freetown — the language, the "awujoh" feasts of the ancestors, the "Fambul Tik" family gatherings, the lantern parades of Independence and the Ramadan nights, the "gara" tie-dye cloth, the country cloth of the weavers; the "Bondo" (Sande) and "Poro" secret societies of the women's and the men's initiation of the Mende, Temne and Sherbro, the sowei masks of the women of the Bondo among the few masks worn by women in Africa, the "devils" of the street dances; the Ojeh and Hunting societies of the Krio; the "Tangains" of the Freetown carnival; the "palm wine music" of Ebenezer Calender and S. E. Rogie, the "bubu" of the Temne, the gumbe of the Maroons; no UNESCO intangible listing yet |
| Symbol status | The flag and the anthem by the independence settlement of 1961; the arms by the royal warrant of 1960; the chimpanzee by the presidential declaration of 2019; the dish, the flower and the sport widely cited, none designated |
Geography
| Location | West Africa, the Atlantic coast between 7 and 10 degrees north — Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, the Atlantic of the Gulf of Guinea's western reach to the west; Freetown 8°29′N 13°14′W; the westward bulge of Africa of Senegal to the north, 1,500 km from Dakar and 1,000 km from Accra; the Upper Guinean forest belt of the south and east, the savanna of the north |
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| Land borders | 1,093 km (679 mi) — Guinea 794 km, the Great Scarcies, the Loma Mountains and the Yenga village of the Makona river the two countries disputed from 2001 until the Guinean troops left; Liberia 299 km along the Mano River and the Moa, the border of the war that the Revolutionary United Front crossed on 23 March 1991 and of the Mano River Union of 1973; the Gola forest astride the Liberian line |
| Coastline | 402 km (250 mi) — the mangrove estuaries of the Great and Little Scarcies, the Sierra Leone River estuary of Freetown's harbor, one of the largest natural harbors of the world, the Freetown peninsula's beaches of Lumley, Lakka, River No. 2, Tokeh and Bureh of the surfers, the Banana Islands of the old slave port, the Yawri Bay, the Turtle Islands, Sherbro Island of Bonthe of the old trading town, the Sherbro River and the Sulima of the Liberian border; the fishing canoes of Tombo; the offshore of the oil blocks unfound; the Bunce Island of the slave castle in the estuary |
| Highest point | Mount Bintumani (Loma Mansa), 1,945 m (6,381 ft) by the older surveys and 1,948 m by the newer, in the Loma Mountains on the Guinea border, the highest of West Africa west of Cameroon; Sankan Biriwa of the Tingi Hills 1,850 m; the Sula Mountains of the iron ore; Picket Hill of the Freetown peninsula 888 m and its Sugar Loaf 760 m; the Wara Wara hills of Kabala; the Kangari Hills |
| Lowest point | The Atlantic Ocean, 0 m |
| Mean elevation | About 279 m (915 ft) |
| Rivers | The Rokel (Seli), 400 km, the longest, from the Loma Mountains past the Bumbuna dam to the Sierra Leone River estuary at Freetown; the Sewa of the alluvial diamonds of the south, joining the Waanje to form the Sherbro; the Moa, 425 km with its Guinean headwaters, of Tiwai Island and the Gola forest; the Jong (Taia) of Moyamba; the Mano of the Liberian border, 320 km; the Great Scarcies (Kolenté) of the Guinea border and the Little Scarcies of the Kambia rice; the Pampana, the Mabole, the Kaba, the Moro and the Gbangbaia; the estuaries of the mangroves and the swamp rice; the ferry crossings of the roads; the hydropower of Bumbuna and the Bekongor of the plans |
| Lakes | Few — Lake Sonfon of 8.2 km² in the Sula Mountains of Koinadugu, the largest natural lake, the sacred lake of the gold of the Kuranko; Lake Mape and Lake Mabesi of the Pujehun swamps of the south; the Bumbuna reservoir of the Rokel; the Guma dam of Freetown's water of 1966 in the peninsula hills; the mangrove lagoons of the coast |
| Terrain | Four belts from the sea — the coastal plain of the mangrove swamps and the beaches of 100 km of width, the Freetown peninsula's mountains rising to 888 m the only high ground on the coast, the wooded plains and the rolling hills of the interior of the bolilands, the swamps and the savanna, and the plateau and the mountains of the east and the north — the Loma and the Tingi of the Guinea Highlands, the Sula and the Kangari of the ore, the Kono plateau of the diamonds, the Gola forest of the southeast; the Upper Guinean rainforest of the south and the east, most of it cut, the savanna of the north; the laterite of the red roads |
| Climate | Tropical monsoon — hot and humid, 26 to 30°C the year round with the highs of 35 in the March dry season and the sea at 30, the wet season of May to November and the rains of June to September, the dry of December to April; the rain of 3,000 to 5,000 mm a year on the Freetown peninsula, among the heaviest of West Africa, and 2,000 to 2,500 inland; the harmattan of the Sahara's dust of December to February that dries the north and hides the sun; the humidity of 80% of the wet season; the Freetown of the landslides when the rains hit the cleared hills |
| Natural hazards | The floods and the mudslides of the rains — the Regent mudslide of 14 August 2017 on Sugar Loaf above Freetown that buried the settlements below and killed some 1,141 people, the worst disaster since the war, the floods of every August in the capital's low ground of Kroo Bay and Susan's Bay; the harmattan's dust storms of the north; the coastal erosion of the peninsula beaches and the sand mining; the fires of the dry season of the markets and the slums, the Wellington fuel tanker explosion of 5 November 2021 of about 150 dead; the deforestation of the peninsula's water catchment; the Ebola of 2014 to 2016 of 14,124 cases and 3,956 deaths, the most cases of the epidemic's three countries; the cholera of 2012; the malaria of every year |
| Natural resources | Diamonds of the Kono and Kenema alluvial fields of the Sewa and the Kimberlite pipes of Koidu — the Star of Sierra Leone of 968.9 carats of 14 February 1972 among the largest ever found, the Peace Diamond of 709 carats of 2017 — the "blood diamonds" that financed the war and the Kimberley Process of 2003 born of it; iron ore of the Tonkolili and Marampa mines of the Sula Mountains, the largest export by far; rutile of the Sierra Rutile mines of Moyamba and Bonthe, among the largest deposits of the world of the titanium ore; bauxite of Port Loko and Moyamba; gold of the Sula and the Tonkolili; the chromite of the past; the fish of the Atlantic shelf; the timber; the swamps and the uplands of the rice; the hydropower of the rivers; the harbor; the beaches; the oil the seismic surveys have promised offshore and the drills of 2009 to 2013 did not find |
| Land use | Agricultural land about 56% — arable about 24%, the rice of the swamps and the uplands, the cassava, the palm oil, the cocoa and the coffee of the east, the pasture of the north; forest about 37% by the older count and far less of the old-growth, the Gola, the Loma, the Outamba-Kilimi and the peninsula the remnants, the rest cut for the farms, the charcoal and the mines; the mangroves of the coast; the mining concessions of the Sula Mountains and the diamond fields |
| National parks | Gola Rainforest National Park (2011), 71,000 ha in three blocks on the Liberian border, the largest tract of the Upper Guinean forest left in the country, the pygmy hippo, the chimpanzee and the 300 birds, the REDD+ carbon project; Loma Mountains National Park (2012), 33,000 ha of Bintumani; Outamba-Kilimi National Park (1995), 110,000 ha of the northern savanna of the elephants, the hippos and the chimpanzees; Western Area Peninsula National Park (2012), 17,700 ha of the Freetown hills and the Tacugama sanctuary of 1995 of the chimpanzees; Tiwai Island Wildlife Sanctuary (1987), 12 km² in the Moa River of the 11 primate species and the pygmy hippo; the Mamunta-Mayoso and the Kangari Hills reserves; the Sierra Leone River estuary, the Yawri Bay and the Sherbro of the Ramsar wetlands; the Banana Islands marine park of the plans |
| UNESCO World Heritage | 1 — the Gola-Tiwai Complex (2025), inscribed at the 47th session in July 2025 as the country's first World Heritage site: the three blocks of the Gola Rainforest National Park and Tiwai Island, 71,203 ha with a buffer of 91,471, the third-largest forest block left of the Upper Guinean forest, more than 1,000 plant species with 113 endemic, 55 mammals of which 19 threatened, the pygmy hippopotamus and the western chimpanzee, a primate biomass among the highest in the world, up to 448 birds including the white-necked rockfowl, 500 butterflies; the Bunce Island slave fort and the Old Fourah Bay College on the tentative list; nothing on the intangible list |
| Administrative divisions | 5 regions — the Northern Province of Makeni (Bombali, Falaba, Koinadugu and Tonkolili districts), the North West Province of Port Loko (Kambia, Karene and Port Loko), the Eastern Province of Kenema (Kailahun, Kenema and Kono), the Southern Province of Bo (Bo, Bonthe, Moyamba and Pujehun) and the Western Area of Freetown (Western Area Urban and Western Area Rural) — the North West and the districts of Falaba and Karene carved out in 2017; 16 districts; 190 chiefdoms of the paramount chiefs of the provinces, the "native administration" of the protectorate that survives, the chiefs elected for life by the tribal authorities and 14 of them sitting in Parliament; 22 local councils of the cities and the districts of the decentralization of 2004; the wards of the councillors |
People
| Population | 7,548,702 (mid-term census of December 2021); 7,092,113 (census of 2015); about 8.9 million (2025 est., UN) |
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| Population density | About 105 per km² (270 per sq mi) on the census count, 120 on the UN's — the Western Area at more than 2,000, Kono and Kenema of the diamonds and Bo of the south the fullest provinces, Falaba and Koinadugu of the north the emptiest |
| Population growth | About 2% a year — 37 births per thousand against 11 deaths, the fertility of four, the young country of a median age of 19; the migration to Freetown and the Western Area that doubled the capital in a generation; the emigration of the war years to Guinea and Liberia and back; the Guineans, Lebanese, Nigerians, Chinese and Indians of the trade and the mines |
| Median age | About 19 years — 42% under 15, 4% aged 65 and over |
| Life expectancy | About 60 years — among the lowest of the world, up from 39 at the war's end in 2002; the maternal mortality once the world's highest and halved since 2010 |
| Fertility rate | About 4 births per woman |
| Urban population | About 45% |
| Adult literacy | About 48% — the men 55%, the women 41% |
| Ethnic groups | Temne 35% by the census of 2015, of the north and the Northern Province, Freetown's traders and the APC; Mende 33%, of the south and the east, the SLPP; Limba 6%, of the north, the people of Siaka Stevens; Kono 4% of the diamond district; Fula (Fulani) 3%, the herders and the traders; Susu 3% of the Guinea border; Loko 3%; Kuranko (Koranko) 3% of the Loma foothills; Sherbro 3% of the coast and the island; Mandingo 2%; Krio 1%, the descendants of the freed settlers of Freetown, the Nova Scotians, the Maroons and the liberated Africans, the elite of the colony and the Creole culture of the capital; Kissi, Vai, Yalunka, Krim and Gola of the borders; the Lebanese of the diamond trade since the 1890s; the census of 16 groups |
| Languages | English official; Krio the lingua franca of 95%, the Creole of the settlers of English, Yoruba, Igbo and the Portuguese of the coast, the first language of the Freetown Krio; Mende by about a third, the language of the south, of the Poro and the Sande, written in the Kikakui syllabary of 1921; Temne by about a third in the north; Limba, Kono, Kuranko, Susu, Fula, Mandingo, Loko, Sherbro, Kissi, Vai of the Vai script, Yalunka, Krim; the Arabic of the mosques; the French of the Guinea trade; the 16 languages of the census in a country where the Krio radio reaches all |
| Religion | Muslim 77% by the census of 2015 — the Sunni of the Maliki school of the Fula and Mandingo traders of the north since the 1700s, the Temne, the Susu and the Limba, the Ahmadiyya of the schools, the Central Mosque of Freetown; Christian 22% — the Anglicans of the Church of Sierra Leone of the settlers and the St. George's Cathedral of 1828, the Methodists, the Catholics of the Archdiocese of Freetown, the Pentecostals and the evangelicals of the boom, the Krio and the Mende of the missions; the traditional religion of the societies beneath both; the marriages across the line, the shared festivals, the Inter-Religious Council that mediated the war, the country of the world's most tolerant faith relations by the surveys, a Christian president with a Muslim first lady today and a Muslim president with a Christian one before him |
| Human Development Index | 0.467 (2023 data, 2025 report) — low; about 185th of 193 |
| Learning and letters | Fourah Bay College of 1827, the first Western-style university of sub-Saharan Africa, of the Church Missionary Society on Mount Aureol, the "Athens of West Africa" whose graduates staffed the colonies of the coast, the University of Sierra Leone with Njala University of 1964 and the College of Medicine; the Free Quality School Education of 2018 of the SLPP government that put a million more children in school and the 22% of the budget on education; the Bo School of 1906 of the chiefs' sons; the writers — Syl Cheney-Coker of "The Last Harmattan of Alusine Dunbar," Ishmael Beah of "A Long Way Gone," the child soldier's memoir, Aminatta Forna of "The Memory of Love," Yulisa Amadu Maddy, Abioseh Nicol; the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation of 1934, the first radio of West Africa; Adelaide Casely-Hayford of the girls' school of 1923; Sengbe Pieh of the Amistad revolt of 1839, born in the Mende country |
| Sport | Football of the Leone Stars, the three Cup of Nations of 1994, 1996 and 2021, the national stadium rebuilt by China in 2023, Kallon of Inter Milan and Kamara of the American league, the Premier League of the Lions and the Blackpool; the amputee football team of the war's survivors that played the world cups of the sport; the athletics of Barber's world gold of 2003 for France and of the Commonwealth Games; the boxing; the cricket of the Krio; the Olympics since 1968 without a medal; the "Salone" cycling of the Tour de Lunsar; the basketball courts of Freetown; the wrestling of the villages |
| Diaspora | Some hundreds of thousands abroad — Britain of the London and the Manchester of the war's refugees and the students, the United States of Washington, Maryland and Philadelphia, Guinea and Liberia of the border peoples, The Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria, Australia; the Krio of the coast from Gambia to Cameroon of the colonial civil service; the remittances of about US$300 million a year, a twentieth of the economy; the Gullah of South Carolina and Georgia whose rice culture and words the scholars traced to the Sierra Leone slaves of Bunce Island, the "Gullah connection" of Joseph Opala and the homecomings of 1989 and 1997; the ministers and the diaspora vote the constitution does not give |
Government
| Form of government | Unitary presidential republic under the Constitution of 1991 — the president as head of state and of government, directly elected for five years and two terms, with the vice president on the ticket, the cabinet of ministers outside Parliament and the chief minister of the president's appointment; the unicameral Parliament of 149; the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal and the High Court; the paramount chiefs of the 190 chiefdoms as the local rulers of the provinces; the two-party contest of the SLPP of the Mende south and the APC of the Temne and Limba north since 1961; "partly free" by Freedom House; the peaceful transfers of 2007 and 2018 and the disputed count of 2023 in the account of the observers; the coups of 1967, 1968, 1992, 1996 and 1997 and the attack of 2023 in the memory |
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| President | Julius Maada Bio (Sierra Leone People's Party — SLPP), since 4 April 2018 — the fifth president of the republic and the second term since 2023; born 12 May 1964 at Tihun in Bonthe District of the Sherbro south, the 33rd child of a paramount chief, the soldier of the Bo School and the Nigerian Defence Academy who fought the RUF and joined the young officers' coup of 29 April 1992 of Valentine Strasser, the deputy chairman of the National Provisional Ruling Council of 1993 to 1995 and the head of state of 16 January to 29 March 1996 after he deposed Strasser, at 32, who held the election of February and March 1996 and handed power to Ahmad Tejan Kabbah in the first transfer to an elected president since 1967; the American master's degree, the businessman, the SLPP candidate of 2012 who lost to Koroma and of 2018 who won the runoff of 31 March 2018 against Samura Kamara with 51.8%, the president of the Free Quality School Education of 2018, the abolition of the death penalty of 2021, the Gender Equality Act of 2023 of the 30%, the ban on child marriage of 2024, the "Feed Salone" of the rice self-sufficiency and the "Big Five" of his second term; re-elected on 24 June 2023 with 56.17% in the first round in the count the APC rejected; the drug emergency of 2024 against the kush; the chairman of ECOWAS from 22 June 2025 to 20 July 2026; the term to 2028 and no third allowed |
| Vice President and Chief Minister | Vice President Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh (SLPP), since 4 April 2018 — the Fula political scientist and UN official of Sierra Leone's and Liberia's missions, the running mate of 2018 and 2023, the first Fula in the office; Chief Minister David Moinina Sengeh, since July 2023 — the MIT and Harvard biomechanical engineer of the IBM Research lab of Nairobi, the minister of basic education of 2019 to 2023 of the free education, the chief innovation officer, the head of the government's day-to-day and the "Big Five" delivery, the third chief minister after David Francis and Jacob Jusu Saffa; the cabinet of some 30 ministers with Sheku Bangura at finance, Timothy Kabba at foreign affairs, Austin Demby at health, the ministers of mines, agriculture and defense |
| The 2023 election | The general election of 24 June 2023: the presidency — Bio 1,566,932 votes and 56.17% to Samura Kamara of the APC's 1,148,262 and 41.16%, above the 55% that avoids a runoff, on a turnout of 83%, eleven other candidates the rest; the Parliament — SLPP 81 of the 135 elected seats and the APC 54 by the district proportional representation the government brought back for the vote, 14 paramount chiefs beside them; the count the APC called rigged, the European Union's observers found "statistical inconsistencies" in and the National Election Watch and the Carter Center asked the Electoral Commission to publish by polling station, which it did not; the APC's boycott of Parliament and the councils, the mediation of the Commonwealth, ECOWAS and the African Union, and the Agreement for National Unity of 18 October 2023 that ended it with a review of the electoral system and the cross-party committee; the local councils of the same day; the elections of 2018 (Bio 51.8% in the runoff), 2012 (Koroma 58.7%), 2007 (Koroma in the runoff) and 2002 and 1996 (Kabbah) |
| The attack of 26 November 2023 | The assault of the early hours of 26 November 2023 on the Wilberforce barracks, the armory, the Pademba Road prison and the police stations of Freetown by armed men who freed about 2,000 prisoners and killed some 20 soldiers, police and civilians before the army retook the city, the curfew of the days after — a failed coup by the government's account, of "some serving and retired officers," and the arrests of more than 70; former President Ernest Bai Koroma of the APC, questioned in December, charged with treason and three other counts on 3 January 2024 and allowed to leave for Nigeria on 17 January 2024 under the ECOWAS arrangement of a "temporary" stay that continues, the charge he calls political; the court-martial of 2024 that sentenced the soldiers to long terms and the treason trial of the civilians; the tension of the disputed election in every account (LAW 2) |
| Parliament | The Parliament of Sierra Leone — unicameral, at Tower Hill in Freetown in the house of 1970: 135 members elected for five years by the district proportional representation of 2023 in the 16 districts by the largest-remainder method, and 14 paramount chiefs elected by the chiefs of each provincial district, 149 in all; the Speaker Segepoh Solomon Thomas of the SLPP since July 2023, the Court of Appeal judge, the Deputy Speaker Ibrahim Tawa Conteh; the SLPP 81, the APC 54 and the chiefs 14 of the sixth Parliament of the republic; the Leader of Government Business Mathew Sahr Nyuma and the Leader of the Opposition Abdul Kargbo of the APC; the 30% of women the Act of 2023 requires that the 2023 election's lists first met, 41 women elected; the first-past-the-post constituencies of 2007 to 2018 the APC wants back; the mace of independence |
| The next election | The general election due in June 2028 — the presidency, in which Bio may not stand, the Parliament and the councils on one day; the succession of the SLPP of the vice president, the chief minister and the ministers in the party's talk and the APC of Samura Kamara, Alfred Peter Conteh of the party's chair and the mayor of Freetown in the opposition's; the review of the electoral system the Agreement of 2023 promised; the Electoral Commission of Mohamed Kenewui Konneh the APC wants replaced |
| The parties | The Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) of 1951 of Sir Milton Margai, the party of independence and of the Mende south and east, of Albert Margai, of Kabbah's governments of 1996 to 2007 that ended the war and of Bio since 2018, the green of the palm; the All People's Congress (APC) of 1960 of Siaka Stevens, the party of the Temne and Limba north and of Freetown's poor, of the one-party state of 1978 to 1991, of Momoh, of Ernest Bai Koroma's two terms of 2007 to 2018 and of Samura Kamara's two defeats, the red of the sun; the National Grand Coalition (NGC) of Kandeh Yumkella of 2017, the third force that faded; the Coalition for Change (C4C) of Kono of Sam Sumana; the People's Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC) of Charles Margai of 2006; the United National People's Party; the Unity Party; the Revolutionary United Front Party of Sankoh's heirs that won nothing; the "two-party system" of the north and the south the country's politics has been since 1967 |
| ECOWAS and the region | The chairman of the Economic Community of West African States from 22 June 2025, when Nigeria's Tinubu handed over at Abuja, to the 69th summit held at Freetown on 20 July 2026, when Bio handed over to Senegal's Bassirou Diomaye Faye — the year of the confederation of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger outside the community since January 2025, the Guinea-Bissau coup of November 2025, the standby force against the jihadists and the "regional instability" of every headline; the Mano River Union of 1973 with Liberia, Guinea and Côte d'Ivoire, its secretariat in Freetown; the ECOMOG of Nigeria that fought for the Kabbah government in 1997 and 1998 and the ECOWAS mission of 1998 to 2000; the West African Monetary Zone and the eco that never came; the Yenga border question with Guinea settled by the withdrawal; the free movement of the region's traders |
| The war and the peace | The civil war of 23 March 1991 to 18 January 2002 — the Revolutionary United Front of Foday Sankoh that crossed from Liberia with Charles Taylor's backing for the diamonds, the amputations, the abductions of the children, the "Operation No Living Thing" and the invasion of Freetown of 6 January 1999 of some 5,000 dead, the coups of 1992 and 1997, the Kamajor militias, the ECOMOG, the Lomé accord of 7 July 1999 that made Sankoh vice president and the UNAMSIL of 17,500 peacekeepers of 1999 to 2005, the largest of its day, the British of Operation Palliser of May 2000 who broke the RUF at Freetown and rescued the hostages of the West Side Boys at the Rokel, the disarmament of 72,000 fighters, the declaration of the war's end by President Kabbah at Lungi on 18 January 2002; some 50,000 dead by the common count and two million displaced; the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of 2002 to 2004 and the Special Court for Sierra Leone of 16 January 2002 that convicted the RUF, AFRC and CDF leaders and, on 26 April 2012, Charles Taylor of Liberia, the first head of state convicted by an international court since Nuremberg, sentenced to 50 years in a British prison; Sankoh dead in custody in 2003; the amputees and the child soldiers of the reintegration; the peace of a quarter century since |
| Legal system | A mixture of the English common law of the colony and the customary law of the chiefdoms, the local courts of the chiefs beside the magistrates; the Supreme Court of the chief justice, the Court of Appeal, the High Court, the Anti-Corruption Commission of 2000 and the Independent Commission of Investigations; the death penalty abolished by Parliament on 23 July 2021 and by the Act of October 2021, the first of the region's abolitions of the decade, the last hanging of 1998; the Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment Act of 2023 of the 30% of public jobs and lists and the 14 weeks of maternity leave; the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act of 2 July 2024 that bans the marriage of the under-18 with a 15-year sentence, in a country where a third of the girls married as children; the Sexual Offences Act of 2019 and the state of emergency on rape of 2019; the Public Order Act's criminal libel repealed in 2020; homosexuality criminal by the colonial law of 1861, unenforced; the customary land and the "female genital mutilation" of the Bondo the law does not ban; the kush of the synthetic drug of the streets and the state of emergency of 4 April 2024; the Cybersecurity Act of 2021 |
| Local government | The Western Area and the four provinces; the 16 districts and the 22 local councils of the Local Government Act of 2004 — the city councils of Freetown, Bo, Kenema, Makeni, Koidu and Bonthe and the district councils, the mayors and the chairmen elected for four years, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr of the APC the mayor of Freetown since 2018 and re-elected in 2023, of the "Transform Freetown" of the trees and the cable car plans; the 190 chiefdoms of the paramount chiefs of the protectorate's law, elected for life from the ruling houses by the tribal authorities, the courts, the land and the tax of the villages; the district officers of the state; the wards of the councillors and the village development committees |
| Defense | The Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces (RSLAF) — the army, the maritime wing and the air wing, about 8,500, rebuilt after the war by the British International Military Advisory and Training Team of 2000 to 2013 and its successor, the Chinese-built headquarters and the National Security Council; the peacekeepers of the African Union in Somalia of 2013 to 2015, of the UN in Sudan, South Sudan and Lebanon; the police of the Sierra Leone Police of 1894, the oldest of West Africa, of about 13,000; the Office of National Security; the coups of the past — 1967, 1968, 1992, 1996, 1997 — and the attack of 26 November 2023 in the barracks of Wilberforce the army put down; the defense minister of the president's cabinet; the ECOWAS standby force contributions; the British training and the American equipment; no navy beyond the patrol boats of the fisheries |
| Foreign policy | The "friend to all" of the small state — Britain of the colony, the Commonwealth, the intervention of 2000 that saved the capital and the aid; the United States of the Millennium Challenge compact of US$480 million of 2024 for the electricity, the Peace Corps and the Ebola response; China of the stadium, the hospital, the Lungi bridge memorandum, the fishing harbor of Black Johnson the environmentalists fought and the loans; the European Union of the observers and the fisheries; Turkey of the Lungi airport; the Gulf; Nigeria of the ECOMOG memory and the ECOWAS; Guinea and Liberia of the Mano River Union; the UN Security Council seat of 2024 and 2025, the second in the country's history after 1970–71, on which Sierra Leone presided in August 2024; the ECOWAS chair of 2025–26; the Kimberley Process of the certified diamonds; the Commonwealth, the African Union, the OIC of the Muslim majority |
| United Nations | Member since 27 September 1961; the UN Security Council non-permanent seat of 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2025 and its presidency of August 2024; the UNAMSIL of 1999 to 2005, the mission that ended the war and the model of the peacebuilding of the UNIPSIL to 2014; the Special Court of 2002 to 2013 with the UN and its Residual Mechanism; the Ebola response of the UNMEER of 2014 to 2015; the peacekeepers Sierra Leone sends since; the Peacebuilding Commission's first case of 2006; the UNESCO of the Gola-Tiwai Complex of 2025 |
| Other memberships | The Economic Community of West African States (1975), chaired 2025–26; the African Union (1963, as the OAU); the Commonwealth (1961); the Mano River Union (1973); the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (1972); the Non-Aligned Movement; the World Trade Organization (1995); the International Criminal Court (2000); the Kimberley Process (2003); the West African Monetary Zone; the African Development Bank; the Group of 77; the African Continental Free Trade Area |
Economy
| GDP (nominal) | About US$7.7 billion (2025, IMF World Economic Outlook of April 2026); about US$8.3 billion forecast for 2026 — one of the smallest economies of West Africa |
|---|---|
| GDP per capita | About US$870 (2025) — among the lowest 15 of the world |
| GDP per capita (PPP) | About US$3,700 (2025); the GDP at purchasing power about US$33 billion |
| GDP growth | 4.3% in 2024, 4.4% in 2025 and 4.5% forecast for 2026 by the IMF, about 4% by the World Bank, the mines and the farms; inflation from the 47.7% of 2023 of the leone's collapse and the food prices to 28% in 2024 and 4.4% by the end of 2025, "the lowest in decades" in the president's account to the IMF's managing director in New York on 21 September 2026, the exchange rate steady; the public debt about 45% of GDP by the encyclopedias' count and higher by the IMF's definitions, the interest of the domestic debt 42% of the revenue in 2025; the Extended Credit Facility of the IMF of 2024 to 2027 of about US$250 million, the third review of 2026, and the Resilience and Sustainability Facility; the "Feed Salone" of the rice, the "Big Five" of the second term; the poverty of about 57% by the World Bank's 2018 count; the informal economy of most of the jobs |
| Economy by sector | Agriculture about 55% of GDP and two-thirds of the jobs — the rice of the swamps and the uplands the country still imports a third of, the cassava, the palm oil, the cocoa and the coffee of Kenema and Kailahun, the groundnuts, the fish of the artisanal fleet, the ginger and the cashew of the new exports; industry about 10% — the mines of the iron ore, the diamonds, the rutile and the bauxite, the brewery and the cement; services about 35% — the trade of the Lebanese and the Fula, the telecoms of Orange and Africell, the banks, the state |
| Currency | Leone (SLE) — about 22 to 23 to the U.S. dollar; the new leone of 1 July 2022 at 1,000 old to 1; the Bank of Sierra Leone of 1963 |
| The mines | Iron ore — the Tonkolili mine of the Sula Mountains of the Chinese Kingho's Leone Rock Metal Group since 2021 after African Minerals and Shandong Iron and Steel, the 200 km railway to the port of Pepel, and the Marampa mine of Lunsar of the Marampa Mines of the Gerald Group, together the country's first export at about 70% of the US$1.3 billion of mineral exports of 2025 and US$785 million in 2024, the capacity expansions of 2026; diamonds — the alluvial fields of Kono and the Sewa of the licensed diggers and the Koidu kimberlite mine of Koidu Limited of Beny Steinmetz's group, shut down in May 2025 in the dispute with the workers and the government, the exports of some US$100 to 150 million a year, the Kimberley certificates of the National Minerals Agency; rutile — the Sierra Rutile mine of Moyamba of the Australian Iluka since 2016, among the largest rutile mines of the world, its Area 1 closed in 2024 and the Sembehun deposit of the plans; bauxite of the Sierra Minerals of Port Loko; the gold of the artisanal diggers; the Mines and Minerals Development Act of 2022; the "resource curse" of the war the diamonds paid for and the royalties the state still counts small |
| The farms | Rice — the staple of 85% of the farms, the swamp rice of the Scarcies and the Sewa and the upland rice of the slash-and-burn, about 1.4 million tons a year and the imports of 300,000 tons the "Feed Salone" of 2023 means to end by 2028 with the tractors, the seed and the irrigation of Torma Bum and Rhombe; cassava the second crop, the "gari" and the fufu; palm oil of the smallholders and the old plantations; cocoa and coffee of the Eastern Province of some US$50 million of exports, the "Kenema cocoa"; the groundnuts, the sweet potato, the maize, the millet of the north; the cattle of the Fula of the north and the goats; the fish of the 30,000 canoes of the coast and the trawlers of the Chinese licenses, the Tombo and Goderich landing sites; the timber of the exports the bans have chased; the kola nuts of the old trade; the cashew and the ginger of the new |
| Energy and the grid | Electricity for about 30% of the people and half of the capital — the Bumbuna hydro dam of the Rokel of 50 MW, begun in 1975 and finished in 2009, the Bumbuna II of 143 MW of the Joule Africa plans, the Karpowership barge of Turkey in the Freetown harbor that supplies the capital on a contract the state struggles to pay, the Kingtom and Blackhall Road diesel plants, the Charlotte and Bankasoka small hydro, the Bo-Kenema plant, the CLSG line of 2021 from Côte d'Ivoire through Liberia and Guinea that brought the regional grid, the solar of Newton of 6 MW; the Millennium Challenge compact of US$480 million of September 2024 for the Freetown grid; the Electricity Distribution and Supply Authority of the blackouts; the charcoal and the firewood of the kitchens; the petrol of the imports and the queues of 2023 |
| Trade | Exports about US$1.5 billion a year — the iron ore of Tonkolili and Marampa to China, the diamonds to Belgium, the Emirates and Israel, the rutile to the United States and Europe, the bauxite, the cocoa, the coffee, the fish, the timber; imports about US$2 billion — the rice, the fuel, the machinery of the mines, the medicines, the vehicles, from China, India, the United States, Belgium, the Emirates and Turkey; China the first partner of both; the deficit the remittances, the aid and the mines' investment cover; the ECOWAS trade of the Guinea border; the leone's fall of 2022–23 and its steadying |
| Public finances | The budget of about Le 20 billion of 2026 — the revenue of 14% of GDP the IMF wants raised, the aid of a fifth, the deficit of about 3% of GDP, the domestic debt of the treasury bills whose interest eats 42% of the revenue; the public debt about 45% of GDP by the World Bank's count of the external debt and about 60% with the domestic; the goods and services tax of 15%; the free education of 22% of the budget, the "Feed Salone," the "Big Five" of the second term — feed, human capital, youth jobs, technology, public service; the Ebola and the pandemic that took the growth of the 2010s; the Karpowership and the fuel subsidies; the Bank of Sierra Leone's policy rate in the twenties against the inflation; the debt relief of 2006 of the HIPC that wiped US$1.6 billion; the Anti-Corruption Commission's recoveries and the audits the opposition and the auditor general quarrel over |
| Income classification | Low income (World Bank); least developed country (UN) |
Transport & infrastructure
| Airports | Freetown International Airport at Lungi, across the estuary from the capital, the airport of the 1940s of the RAF and of the war's peacekeepers, the new terminal built by Turkey's Summa on a concession and opened on 4 March 2023 for two million passengers, the runway of 3,200 m of the Air France, Brussels Airlines, Turkish, Royal Air Maroc, Kenya Airways, Air Peace and Air Senegal flights; the crossing to Freetown by the Sea Coach and Sea Bird water taxis of 40 minutes, the Kissy ferry, the road of the four hours around, the helicopter of the past that crashed in 2007 and the hovercraft that failed, the Lungi Bridge of 8 km of the plans since 2019 and the Chinese memorandum; the airstrips of Bo, Kenema, Bonthe and Yengema of the Kono diamonds; no flag carrier since Sierra National Airlines closed in 2006; the "Fly Salone" of the plans |
|---|---|
| Ports | Freetown — the Queen Elizabeth II Quay of 1954 at Cline Town on the Sierra Leone River estuary, one of the largest natural harbors of the world, the container terminal run by Bolloré and then the Africa Global Logistics of MSC since 2011, the cruise ships of the few; the Pepel port of the iron ore of the Tonkolili railway and the Tagrin of the Marampa ore; the Bonthe of Sherbro Island of the old days; the Nitti port of the rutile; the fishing harbor of the Chinese plans at Black Johnson the beach's defenders fought; the Kissy ferry terminal of the Lungi crossing; the canoes of Tombo and the estuary |
| Railways | None for passengers — the Sierra Leone Government Railway of 1897 to 1974 of the narrow gauge of 762 mm from Freetown to Bo, Kenema and Pendembu, 500 km, closed in 1974 and its rails sold, the museum of Cline Town of its locomotives; the Marampa–Pepel line of 1933 of the iron ore and the Tonkolili–Pepel of 200 km of the Chinese and the Shandong years since 2011, the standard gauge of the ore trains; the plans of a passenger line to Lungi and the bridge |
| Roads | About 11,700 km (7,300 mi), about 1,000 km paved — the Freetown–Bo–Kenema highway of the south and the Freetown–Makeni–Kabala of the north, the Bo–Kenema of the Chinese, the Kenema–Pendembu of the EU, the Freetown peninsula toll road of the China Railway Seventh Group of 2016 of the tolls the drivers hate, the Hillside bypass of Freetown, the Bandajuma–Liberia border of the Mano River bridge; the laterite roads of the rainy season and the "okada" motorcycle taxis and the "kekeh" tricycles of every town, the "poda-poda" minibuses of Freetown; the driving on the right since 1971; the road deaths of the overloaded trucks; the Sierra Leone Roads Authority of the potholes; the bridges of the Sewa and the Moa; the Waterloo traffic |
| Freetown transport | The poda-podas and the government buses of the Sierra Leone Road Transport Corporation; the okadas of the youth of the war; the kekehs of the 2010s; the ferries and the water taxis of the estuary; the cable car of Mayor Aki-Sawyerr's plans for the hills; the Hillside road; the Wilkinson Road of the beach; the Congo Cross and the Lumley roundabouts of the jams; the Cotton Tree roundabout of the center |
| Utilities | The Electricity Distribution and Supply Authority and the Generation and Transmission Company of the blackouts and the Karpowership; the Guma Valley Water Company of Freetown of the dam of 1966 built for 300,000 people and serving a million; the Sierra Leone Water Company of the towns; the Orange and Africell of the mobile phones of 90% of the adults and the mobile money, the ACE submarine cable of 2013 that brought the broadband, the Sierratel of the state; the Connaught Hospital of 1912 and the new Chinese hospital of Freetown; the pit latrines of the cities and the open defecation of the villages the surveys count; the plastic of the Kroo Bay |
| The country | The beaches of the peninsula — River No. 2, Tokeh, Bureh; the Tacugama chimpanzees; the Banana and the Turtle islands; Bunce Island; Tiwai Island and the Gola forest; Bintumani; Outamba-Kilimi; the Lake Sonfon; the Kabala hills; the Bonthe of the old houses; the Freetown of the Cotton Tree, the museum, the Fourah Bay hill and the Lumley Beach; the Bo of the school |
History in dates
| c. 2500 BC | The first farmers and fishers of the coast |
|---|---|
| c. 1400s | The Temne, Mende, Limba and Sherbro kingdoms |
| 1462 | Pedro de Sintra names the "Serra Lyoa" |
| 1500s | The Mane invasions; the Portuguese and English slavers |
| 1670 | Bunce Island, the slave fort of the Royal African Company |
| 1787 | The Province of Freedom of Granville Sharp's 400 settlers, 15 May |
| 1792 | Freetown founded by the Nova Scotians, 11 March |
| 1800 | The Jamaican Maroons arrive |
| 1808 | The Crown Colony, 1 January; the liberated Africans landed |
| 1827 | Fourah Bay College |
| 1839 | Sengbe Pieh's Amistad revolt |
| 1896 | The Protectorate, 31 August |
| 1898 | The Hut Tax War — Bai Bureh |
| 1924 | The Legislative Council of the protectorate |
| 1951 | The SLPP founded — Milton Margai |
| 1961 | Independence, 27 April — the flag, the anthem; the UN, 27 September |
| 1964 | Milton Margai dies, 28 April — Albert Margai; the leone |
| 1967 | The APC wins, 17 March; the coups |
| 1968 | Siaka Stevens restored, 26 April |
| 1971 | The republic, 19 April; the switch to the right, 1 March |
| 1978 | The one-party state, June |
| 1985 | Momoh succeeds Stevens, 28 November |
| 1991 | The RUF invades, 23 March; the Constitution, 1 October |
| 1992 | The NPRC coup, 29 April — Strasser |
| 1996 | Bio deposes Strasser, 16 January; Kabbah sworn in, 29 March |
| 1997 | The AFRC coup, 25 May |
| 1998 | ECOMOG restores Kabbah, 10 March |
| 1999 | Freetown invaded, 6 January; Lomé, 7 July; UNAMSIL, October |
| 2000 | Operation Palliser, 7 May; the West Side Boys, September |
| 2002 | The war ends, 18 January; the Special Court; Kabbah re-elected, 14 May |
| 2007 | Koroma elected, 8 September — the transfer |
| 2012 | Taylor convicted, 26 April; Koroma re-elected, 17 November |
| 2014 | Ebola, May — 3,956 dead by 2016 |
| 2017 | The Regent mudslide, 14 August — 1,141 dead |
| 2018 | Bio elected, 31 March; sworn in, 4 April; free education, September |
| 2021 | The death penalty abolished, 23 July; the Wellington explosion, 5 November |
| 2022 | The new leone, 1 July; the protests, 10 August |
| 2023 | The Cotton Tree falls, 24 May; the election, 24 June; the Agreement, 18 October; the attack, 26 November |
| 2024 | The Security Council seat, 1 January; Koroma charged, 3 January; the drug emergency, 4 April; the child-marriage ban, 2 July; the MCC compact, September |
| 2025 | Koidu mine shut, May; the ECOWAS chair, 22 June; the Gola-Tiwai inscription, July |
| 2026 | The ECOWAS summit at Freetown and the handover to Faye, 20 July; the IMF's praise, 21 September |
Records & firsts
| The first Western-style university of sub-Saharan Africa | Fourah Bay, 1827 |
|---|---|
| The first radio of West Africa | Freetown, 1934 |
| One of the largest natural harbors | The Sierra Leone River estuary |
| The first head of state convicted since Nuremberg | Taylor, 26 April 2012 |
| The largest UN mission of its day | UNAMSIL, 17,500 |
| The Star of Sierra Leone | 968.9 carats, 1972 |
| The Peace Diamond | 709 carats, 2017 |
| The highest peak west of Cameroon | Bintumani, 1,945 m |
| The first World Heritage site | Gola-Tiwai, 2025 |
| Among the heaviest rains of West Africa | Freetown, 3,000–5,000 mm |
| The Kimberley Process's cause | The blood diamonds |
| The death penalty abolished | 2021 |
| The child-marriage ban | 2024 |
| The national animal by decree | The chimpanzee, 2019 |
| The Security Council seat | 2024–25 |
| The ECOWAS summit at Freetown | 20 July 2026 |
Frequently asked questions
What is the official name of Sierra Leone?
The Republic of Sierra Leone — Salone in the Krio of its people — the name of the republic of 19 April 1971 that followed the dominion of 27 April 1961, when the British Crown Colony of Freetown of 1808 and the Protectorate of the interior of 1896 became one independent state under Sir Milton Margai. The name is Portuguese: "Serra Lyoa," the "lion mountains," is what the navigator Pedro de Sintra called the hills of the Freetown peninsula in 1462, for the thunder that rolled off them or for their shape, the chroniclers disagree; the Spanish and then the English turned it into "Sierra Leone." Freetown itself was named by the Sierra Leone Company for the freed people it settled there in 1792, after the "Province of Freedom" of 1787 of the abolitionist Granville Sharp.
What is the capital of Sierra Leone?
Freetown — the city on the northern shore of the Freetown peninsula the Nova Scotian settlers, the freed slaves of the American war, founded on 11 March 1792 on one of the largest natural harbors of the world, the estuary of the Sierra Leone River, the capital of the colony of 1808, of the protectorate and of the republic; 1,050,301 people at the census of 2015 in the Western Area Urban, about 607,000 by the disputed mid-term count of 2021 that the city and the opposition rejected as an undercount, more than a million by every other estimate and a fifth of the nation, the seat of State House, Parliament on Tower Hill, the Supreme Court, the Fourah Bay College of 1827 on Mount Aureol, the Cotton Tree of the settlers that fell in the storm of 24 May 2023, the Queen Elizabeth II Quay and the ferries to Lungi and the airport across the water. Bo of the south, Kenema of the diamonds, Makeni of the north and Koidu of Kono follow, each of 125,000 to 200,000.
How big is Sierra Leone, and how many people live there?
About 72,000 km² — 71,740 km² (27,699 sq mi) by the Factbook count the family carries and 73,252 km² by the country's newer survey — the size of Ireland, on the Atlantic coast of West Africa between Guinea to the north and east and Liberia to the southeast, the mangrove coast and the Freetown peninsula in the west rising through the plains and the plateau to the Loma Mountains of the northeast. The census of 2015 counted 7,092,113 people and the mid-term census of December 2021 7,548,702, growing about 2 percent a year on a fertility rate of about four children a woman, the median age about 19; the United Nations puts the population at about 8.9 million for 2025 — the Temne of the north and the Mende of the south each about a third, the Limba, Kono, Fula, Susu, Loko, Koranko, Sherbro and Mandingo, the Krio of Freetown of the settlers a small share whose language nearly everyone speaks, three in four Muslim and one in four Christian in a country famous for the peace between them.
What are the highest and lowest points of Sierra Leone?
Mount Bintumani, Loma Mansa, 1,945 m (6,381 ft) — 1,948 m by the newer surveys — in the Loma Mountains of the northeast on the Guinea border, the highest peak of West Africa west of Mount Cameroon, in the Loma Mountains National Park of 2012 of the chimpanzees and the montane forest; the Tingi Hills of Sankan Biriwa, 1,850 m, and the Sula Mountains of the iron ore follow. The lowest point is the Atlantic Ocean. Between them lie the 402 km of coast of the mangroves and the Bullom, Turtle and Sherbro islands, the beaches of River No. 2 and Tokeh on the peninsula whose Picket Hill rises to 888 m and Sugar Loaf to 760 m over Freetown, the swamps of the rice, the plains of the Rokel, the Sewa and the Moa, the plateau of the diamonds of Kono and Kenema, and the Gola Rainforest on the Liberian border that with Tiwai Island became the country's first World Heritage site in 2025.
What currency does Sierra Leone use?
The leone (ISO code SLE, Le), of 100 cents, issued by the Bank of Sierra Leone — the currency of 1964 that replaced the West African pound, redenominated on 1 July 2022 by the removal of three zeros, 1,000 old leones (SLL) becoming one new, the old notes withdrawn in 2023; it trades at about 22 to 23 to the U.S. dollar after the fall of 2022 and 2023 that took inflation past 50 percent and the stabilization since, the new notes keeping the old designs of Sir Milton Margai, Bai Bureh of the Hut Tax War, Sengbe Pieh of the Amistad and the Cotton Tree. Dollars are taken by the mining companies and the hotels; the mobile money of Orange and Africell carries the everyday. Clocks keep Greenwich Mean Time, UTC±0, all year; Sierra Leone drives on the right, since the switch of 1 March 1971, on the coast road of Freetown, the Bo–Kenema highway and the toll road to the peninsula's beaches.
Who governs Sierra Leone?
A presidential republic under the Constitution of 1991: the president is head of state and of government, elected for five years and at most two terms, and the Parliament of 149 — 135 elected and 14 paramount chiefs — makes the laws. On 26 September 2026 the president is Julius Maada Bio of the Sierra Leone People's Party, the retired brigadier who ruled the country for ten weeks in 1996 as head of the military junta and handed power to an elected president, elected himself in the runoff of 31 March 2018 with 51.8 percent and re-elected on 24 June 2023 with 56.17 percent in the first round — a result the All People's Congress of Samura Kamara called rigged and the European Union's observers found "statistical inconsistencies" in, settled by the Agreement for National Unity of October 2023 that ended the APC's boycott of Parliament; Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh is vice president, David Moinina Sengeh chief minister, Segepoh Solomon Thomas the Speaker. Bio chaired ECOWAS from 22 June 2025 until the Freetown summit of 20 July 2026 passed the chair to Senegal's Bassirou Diomaye Faye, and held Sierra Leone's seat on the UN Security Council in 2024 and 2025; his second term ends with the election due in 2028.
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