_#_Literacy: 21% (male 31%, female 11%) age 15 and over can read and write English, Mende, Temne, or Arabic (1990 est.)
_#_Labor force: 1,369,000 (est.); agriculture 65%, industry 19%, services 16% (1981); only about 65,000 earn wages (1985); 55% of population of working age
_#_Organized labor: 35% of wage earners
_*Government #_Long-form name: Republic of Sierra Leone
_#_Type: republic under presidential regime
_#_Capital: Freetown
_#_Administrative divisions: 4 provinces; Eastern, Northern, Southern, Western
_#_Independence: 27 April 1961 (from UK)
_#_Constitution: 14 June 1978
_#_Legal system: based on English law and customary laws indigenous to local tribes; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction