Sierra Leone — Country Profile
An overview of Sierra Leone covering geography, demographics, economy, culture, political status, and practical information, sourced from World Bank and REST Countries open data.
These figures are estimates based on public statistics and may differ from actual values.
About Sierra Leone
The capital of Sierra Leone is Freetown. It has a population of approximately 8.6M. The country covers an area of 71,740 km². It is located in Western Africa.
Geography
Sierra Leone is a country in Western Africa, part of the Africa region. It covers an area of approximately 71,740 km². It shares land borders with Guinea and Liberia, totalling 2 neighbours.
Demographics & Languages
Sierra Leone has a population of approximately 8,642,022 people. Population density is around 120.5 people per km². Its officially recognised languages include English, totalling 1 language. People from this country are referred to as Sierra Leonean.
Economy Overview
As of 2025, Sierra Leone reports a nominal GDP of about $7.5 billion. The official currency is the Sierra Leonean leone (SLL, symbol Le). The current exchange rate is approximately 1 USD = 24,357.91 SLL.
Culture & Time
Sierra Leone operates on a single time zone (Africa/Freetown). Its country-code top-level domain (ccTLD) is.sl.
Government & Status
The capital of Sierra Leone is Freetown. It is internationally recognised as an independent sovereign state. The country is a member state of the United Nations.
Practical Information
Traffic drives on the right. The international dialling code is +232. Its ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code is SL.
Data Sources & Methodology
GDP and debt-to-GDP figures on this page are pulled from the most recent available year of World Bank open statistics. The real-time debt estimate is computed by multiplying total debt (GDP × debt ratio) by World Bank's real interest rate (or a 4% fallback when unavailable) and dividing across each second of a year. Exchange rates refresh hourly via open.er-api.com, and country-level metadata such as languages, time zones, borders, and domains is fetched from REST Countries every 24 hours. All values are estimates derived from public datasets and may differ from official figures.