A Little About Sierra Leone...

FAST FACTS

Population: 

5,525,000

 

Capital: 

Freetown; 921,000

 

Area: 

71,740 square kilometers (27,699 square miles)

 

Language: 

English, Mende, Temne, Krio

 

Religion: 

Muslim, indigenous beliefs, Christian

 

Currency: 

Leone

 

Life Expectancy: 

43

 

GDP per Capita: 

U.S. $500

 

Literacy Percent: 

31

 

 

MAP

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Sierra Leone is on the Atlantic coast of West Africa, with coastal swamps rising to interior plateaus and mountains. Named "lion mountain" by a 15th-century Portuguese explorer, Sierra Leone was a British colony from the early 19th century until 1961. In the 1990s democratically elected leaders were overthrown but subsequently regained power, and major hostilities have demoralized the population and destabilized the economy. In 2002 Sierra Leone emerged from a decade of civil war, with the help of some 17,000 UN peacekeepers.


ECONOMY

• Industry: Mining (diamonds); small-scale manufacturing (beverages, textiles); petroleum refining
• Agriculture: Rice, coffee, cacao, palm kernels; poultry; fish
• Exports: Diamonds, rutile, cacao, coffee

—Text From National Geographic Atlas of the World, Eighth Edition