Sierra Leone
Population 2026
8,996,749
Overview
- Yearly change
- +2.01%
- Density
- 125 per km²
- Land area
- 72,180 km²
- Capital
- Freetown
- Currency
- Leone (SLE)
- Official languages
- EN-SL, MEN, TEM
- Urban population
- 45.9%
- Continent
- AF
Demographics
- Births
- 261,3282026
- Deaths
- 72,4552026
- Birth rate
- 30.1per 1,000
- Death rate
- 8.2per 1,000
- Fertility rate
- 3.70
- Life expectancy
- 62.0At birth, years
- Median age
- 19.9
- Net migration
- -11,309
Age distribution
- 0–1437.7%
- 15–6459.1%
- 65+3.3%
Population by year
Economy
- GDP
- $7.5B
- GDP per capita
- $846
- GDP growth
- +4.6%
- Inflation
- 7.5%
- Unemployment
- 3.2%
- Exports
- $1.6B
- Imports
- $2.1B
- Tourism receipts
- 5.5%% of exports
Economic output by sector (% of GDP)
- Agriculture29.5%
- Industry25.7%
- Manufacturing7.0%
- Services41.6%
Employment by sector (%)
- Agriculture44.5%
- Industry11.5%
- Services44.0%
Largest cities
| # | City | Population |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | FreetownWestern Area | 802,6392024 |
| 2 | KenemaEastern Province | 255,1102026 |
| 3 | BoSouthern Province | 233,6842026 |
| 4 | KoiduEastern Province | 128,0302026 |
| 5 | MakeniNorthern Province | 85,1162026 |
| 6 | WaterlooWestern Area | 55,0002024 |
| 7 | Port LokoNorth West | 44,9002026 |
| 8 | NjalaSouthern Province | 40,0002024 |
| 9 | LunsarNorthern Province | 22,4612024 |
| 10 | KabalaNorthern Province | 17,9482024 |
Populated place as listed by GeoNames. Not a metropolitan-area figure.
Historical statistics
| Year | Population | Births | Deaths |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 8,996,749 | 261K | 72.5K |
| 2020 | 7,912,557 | 255K | 73.7K |
| 2010 | 6,222,715 | 243K | 88.1K |
| 2000 | 4,423,615 | 199K | 88.5K |
| 1990 | 4,196,834 | 191K | 90.1K |
| 1980 | 3,272,097 | 153K | 75.3K |
| 1970 | 2,712,287 | 128K | 72.0K |
| 1960 | 2,268,361 | 109K | 70.7K |
| 1950 | 1,999,628 | 95.6K | 69.0K |