Population: 4,165,953 (July 1990), growth rate 2.6% (1990)

Birth rate: 47 births/1,000 population (1990)

Death rate: 21 deaths/1,000 population (1990)

Net migration rate: 0 migrants/1,000 population (1990)

Infant mortality rate: 154 deaths/1,000 live births (1990)

Life expectancy at birth: 42 years male, 47 years female (1990)

Total fertility rate: 6.2 children born/woman (1990)

Nationality: noun--Sierra Leonean(s); adjective--Sierra Leonean

Ethnic divisions: 99% native African (30% Temne, 30% Mende); 1% Creole, European, Lebanese, and Asian; 13 tribes

Religion: 30% Muslim, 30% indigenous beliefs, 10% Christian, 30% other or none

Language: English (official); regular use limited to literate minority; principal vernaculars are Mende in south and Temne in north; Krio is the language of the resettled ex-slave population of the Freetown area and is lingua franca

Literacy: 31% (1986)

Labor force: 1,369,000 (est.); 65% agriculture, 19% industry, 16% services (1981); only about 65,000 earn wages (1985); 55% of population of working age

Organized labor: 35% of wage earners

NOTE: The information regarding Sierra Leone on this page is re-published from the 1990 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Sierra Leone People 1990 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Sierra Leone People 1990 should be addressed to the CIA.