Total fertility rate: 6.16 children born/woman (1999 est.)
Nationality: noun: Sierra Leonean(s) adjective: Sierra Leonean
Ethnic groups: 20 native African tribes 90% (Temne 30%, Mende 30%, other 30%), Creole 10% (descendents of freed Jamaican slaves who were settled in the Freetown area in the late-eighteenth century), refugees from Liberia's recent civil war, small numbers of Europeans, Lebanese, Pakistanis, and Indians
Religions: Muslim 60%, indigenous beliefs 30%, Christian 10%
Languages: English (official, regular use limited to literate
minority), Mende (principal vernacular in the south), Temne
(principal vernacular in the north), Krio (English-based Creole,
spoken by the descendents of freed Jamaican slaves who were settled
in the Freetown area, a lingua franca and a first language for 10%
of the population but understood by 95%)
Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write English, Mende,
Temne, or Arabic
total population: 31.4%
male: 45.4%
female: 18.2% (1995 est.)
Government
Country name:
conventional long form: Republic of Sierra Leone
conventional short form: Sierra Leone
Data code: SL
Government type: constitutional democracy