Total fertility rate: 6.01 children born/woman (2001 est.)
HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate: 2.99% (1999 est.)
HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS: 68,000 (1999 est.)
HIV/AIDS - deaths: 8,200 (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% (descendants of freed Jamaican slaves who were settled in the Freetown area in the late-18th 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 descendants 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