Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone is a country located in Western Africa bordering the North Atlantic Ocean, between Guinea and Liberia, covering an area of approximately 71,740 square kilometers. As of 2025, Sierra Leone has a population of about 9.33 million, with English as the official language alongside Mende, Temne, and Krio. The country features a coastal belt of mangrove swamps, wooded hill country, upland plateau, and mountains in the east, with a tropical climate that is hot and humid with a summer rainy season from May to December. Freetown serves as the capital, and the government operates as a presidential republic.

Sierra Leone has a low-income West African economy with a GDP of $7.55 billion and a GDP per capita of $3,100, driven by diamond mining, iron ore, rutile and bauxite mining, and small-scale manufacturing of beverages, textiles, and footwear. Key agricultural products include cassava, rice, oil palm fruit, vegetables, sweet potatoes, milk, citrus fruits, fruits, groundnuts, and sugarcane, while natural resources include diamonds, titanium ore, bauxite, iron ore, gold, and chromite. The unemployment rate is 3.1% as of 2025, with a life expectancy of 62 years and a literacy rate of 43.6%. Sierra Leone has a primarily subsistence agriculture economy with key iron and diamond mining activities suspended, and it continues to recover slowly from its 1990s civil war.