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Where is Sierra Leone?
About Sierra Leone
The Land
The People
Life and Death
Health, Energy and the Environment
Education and Work
Travel, Communication and the Media

Sierra Leone is an average size country in western Africa.

Sierra Leone borders the Atlantic Ocean.

The land has a coastal swamp area, an inland plateau and mountains in the east.

The geographical coordinates for the centre of Sierra Leone, also known as lines of latitude and longitude, are:-
Latitude - 8 30N
Longitude - 11 30W

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Check the weather in Lungi now. Lungi is about 20kms north of Freetown.

This is the time in Freetown now

The Sierra Leonean flag is three equal horizontal stripess of light green, at the top, white and light blue. Green represents agriculture, mountains, and natural resources, white is for unity and justice and blue the sea and the natural harbour in Freetown.

The capital of Sierra Leone is Freetown.

Sierra Leone is a presidential republic with a president as head of state and head of the government.

In elections everyone over the age of 18 can vote.

The currency in Sierra Leone is the Sierra Leonean leone. Sierra Leone is a member of the Commonwealth.

English is the official language.

Hear the National Anthem


These are the anthem words

The words ×

These are the words to the Sierra Leonean National Anthem called High We Exalt Thee, Realm Of The Free. It was adopted in 1961. This is a translation of the words. If anthem fails to play click here

High we exalt thee, realm of the free;
Great is the love we have for thee;
Firmly united ever we stand,
Singing thy praise, O native land.
We raise up our hearts and our voices on high,
The hills and the valleys re-echo our cry;
Blessing and peace be ever thine own,
Land that we love, our Sierra Leone. 

One with a faith that wisdom inspires,
One with a zeal that never tires;
Ever we seek to honour thy name,
Ours is the labour, thine the fame.
We pray that no harm on thy children may fall,
That blessing and peace may descend on us all;
So may we serve thee ever alone,
Land that we love, our Sierra Leone. 

Knowledge and truth our forefathers spread,
Mighty the nations whom they led;
Mighty they made thee, so too may we
Show forth the good that is ever in thee.
We pledge our devotion, our strength and our might,
Thy cause to defend and to stand for thy right;
All that we have be ever thine own,
Land that we love, our Sierra Leone.

We have already written our own history of England but are asking schools in Sierra Leone to provide us with a detailed history of their own country. Check how here.


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The total land area of Sierra Leone is 71,620 sq kms which is the 41st largest in Africa.

Sierra Leone has lakes, rivers and canals which total 120 sq kms.

Sierra Leone has boundaries with 2 countries

• Guinea 794 kms
• Liberia 299 kms

Sierra Leone has a coastline of 402 kms which is the 27th longest in Africa.

The highest point in Sierra Leone is Loma Mansa at 1,948 metres.

The pie chart below shows how the land is split between agricultural land (crops and pastures), forests and other, which can be towns, villages, desert or frozen waste called tundra.

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The total population of Sierra Leone is 6.31 million people, making it the 35th largest country in Africa by population.

Of this number 3.25 million are females and 3.06 million are males.

A person from Sierra Leone is called a Sierra Leonean.

To be a citizen of Sierra Leone, one of your parents or grandparents must be a citizen of Sierra Leone. It is not sufficient to be born in Sierra Leone. You have to live in Sierra Leone for 5 years before you can begin to apply for citizenship.

The largest five cities in Sierra Leone, by population are:-

• Freetown 802,639 people
• Bo 174,354
• Kenema 143,137
• Koidu 88,000
• Makeni 87,679

For each country we will give you a diagram showing the population density. This is the average number of people for each square kilometre. Each little Owlbut is 1 person and the big yellow rectangle is 1 sq km. After a while you can compare countries and see which ones are the most crowded. Remember it is only an average as more people live closer together in towns and cities than in villages out in the country.



42.1% of the people live in cities or towns.

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The birth rate in Sierra Leone is 36.0 births per 1,000 of population

The death rate in Sierra Leone is 10.2 deaths per 1,000 people.

Check this against the birth rate. If the death rate is higher than the birth rate then the population will decrease unless immigrants arrive in the country.

There are 58.3 deaths of girls under 1 year per 1,000 of births and 74.9 deaths of boys.

The median age for females is 19.7 and for males is 18.4. The median age is that age which divides the population exactly in half so there are the same number of people above the median age as below it.

The average age of a woman when she has her first child is 19.2.

The elderly dependency ratio is 4.6. This is the number of elderly people (ages 65+) per 100 people of working age (ages 15-64).

The potential support ratio is 21.9. This is the number of working-age people (ages 15-64) per one elderly person (ages 65+). As a population ages, the potential support ratio tends to fall, meaning there are fewer potential workers to support the elderly.

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Sierra Leone spends 11.1% of its total income on health care.

There are 0.03 doctors per 1,000 people.

We have no figures for the number of hospital beds per 1,000 people.

8.7% of the population are estimated as obese.

84.9% of the urban population and 47.8% of the rural population have drinking water that is either piped into their home or they have access to a public tap, a protected borehole, well, spring or protected rainwater collection facility.

22.8% of the urban population and 6.9% of the rural population have access to a flushing toilet that is connected to a sewer, a pit latrine (that is a permanent hole in the ground that is looked after) or a composting toilet.

Sierra Leone releases 1.4 million metric tons of carbon dioxide by burning fossil fuels in the process of producing and consuming energy. This puts it as the 38th highest in Africa.

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Sierra Leone spends 4.6% of its total income on education.

Children usually start school at age 6 in Sierra Leone. Primary education is for six years until age 12 and secondary education must continue till 15 but can go on to 18/19. This may be followed by further education at a university or college.

Generally the school year consists of 3 terms and starts in the middle of September and finishes at the end of July. There is usually a 3 week break starting in the middle of December and a similiar break starting in the middle of April.

37.7% of females and 58.7% of males are able to read and write by the age of 15.

9.4% of all people aged between 16 and 24 are not in work. Among females 6.1% are unemployed while with males 14.8% can't find work.

The total number of people available for work in Sierra Leone is 2.97 million.

They work in the following sectors.

• Agriculture includes farming, fishing and forestry work
• Industry includes mining, manufacturing, construction and energy workers
• Services is everything else

17.0% of the workforce are unemployed.

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There are 1 paved airports in Sierra Leone, which is the 55th highest number in Africa.


There are no railways in Sierra Leonea.


There are 11,300 kilometres of roads in Sierra Leone, which means Sierra Leone is in 37th place for the most kilometres of roads in Africa.

There are 3 major national newspapers in Sierra Leone.

There are 6.28 million mobile phone users.

Less than 1% of the people have a fixed landline.



708,615 people have access to the internet at home via any device (computer or mobile).

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