Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone is a country in West Africa.

The big Atlantic Ocean is on one side. It has hills, rivers and forests. The capital city is called Freetown.

Sierra Leone is on the Atlantic coast of West Africa. In the 1400s a Portuguese explorer named the hills around its harbor Serra Lyoa, Lion Mountains, and the name stuck.

The country has flat, swampy land along the coast, a mountainous peninsula where Freetown, the capital, stands, and plains and mountains farther inland. The 2021 census counted about 7.5 million people. Most families farm, and village life centers on growing rice.

Sierra Leone takes its name from Serra Lyoa (Lion Mountains), given by the 15th-century Portuguese explorer Pedro de Sintra to the hills around Freetown harbor, one of the world's largest natural harbors. Britannica describes four regions: a coastal swamp about 320 km long, the wooded Sierra Leone Peninsula, the interior plains and the interior plateau and mountains, which cover roughly the eastern half.

The 2021 mid-term population and housing census counted 7,548,702 people (Statistics Sierra Leone); a full census is planned for 2026. Most people farm for their own needs, but the country is also a mining center for diamonds, gold, bauxite and rutile. Julius Maada Bio is president; he was reelected in June 2023.

Freetown is the capital city.

It sits between green hills and the sea. Big ships come into its harbor. A small island in the river has the ruins of an old trading post.

Freetown, the capital, lies on a mountainous peninsula beside one of the world's biggest natural harbors. It has the Sierra Leone National Museum and Fourah Bay College, a college founded in the 1800s.

In Freetown's harbor, on the Sierra Leone River, is Bunce Island, where the ruins of a British trading post still stand. Long ago, enslaved Africans were held there. Bo, in the southeast, was an early center for schools and government. In the far east, the Gola rainforest and Tiwai Island on the Moa River became a World Heritage Site in 2025.

Freetown commands one of the world's largest natural harbors and is the chief port and largest city. Its cultural institutions include the Sierra Leone National Museum, the National Railway Museum and Fourah Bay College, founded by the Church Missionary Society and affiliated with the University of Durham in 1876. Bunce Island, a national historic site in Freetown harbor, held a British slave-trading post from the 1670s until 1808; visitors tour the ruins.

Outside Freetown, large towns grew mainly after World War II: Bo, in the southeast, was an early administrative and educational center, and Kenema grew with diamond mining. The Gola-Tiwai Complex (UNESCO, 2025), 71,203 ha of Gola Rainforest National Park and Tiwai Island Wildlife Sanctuary, is part of the third largest remaining block of the Upper Guinean Forest, extending into Liberia.

Sierra Leone is hot and wet.

From May to October, it rains almost every day. Then a dry, dusty wind blows. Many rivers flow from the hills to the sea.

Along the coast lies a flat, low plain with creeks, mangrove swamps and lagoons. Behind Freetown, wooded mountains rise from the sea. Farther inland are plains and, in the east, a high plateau with mountains such as the Loma Mountains.

The rainy season lasts from May to October, when rain falls almost every day. The mountains near Freetown get more than 5,000 millimeters of rain a year. From November to April a hot, dry wind called the harmattan blows from the Sahara. Nine big rivers flow from the highlands of Guinea across the country to the sea.

The coastal swamp, 8–40 km wide, is a frequently flooded plain of sands and clays with mangrove-lined creeks and lagoons. The Peninsula Mountains rise to about 880 m at Picket Hill. Inland, the northern plains include the seasonally flooded Bolilands, while the eastern plateau of laterite-crusted granite carries the Loma Mountains, crowned by Mount Loma Mansa (Bintimani), and the Tingi Mountains. Nine major rivers, among them the Great Scarcies, Rokel, Sewa, Moa and Mano, rise in Guinea's Fouta Djallon and flow southwest.

The climate is tropical. The rainy season, May to October, brings almost daily rain, heaviest in July and August; the Peninsula Mountains receive more than 5,000 mm a year and the northeast about 2,000 mm. The November–April dry season brings the harmattan from the Sahara. Secondary forest now dominates; original forest survives mainly in the Gola reserves, and savanna, shaped by farming, grazing and fire, increases northward.

Chimpanzees live in Sierra Leone's forests.

Small hippos called pygmy hippos live by the rivers. Manatees swim in the water. Lots of birds sing in the trees.

Chimpanzees and many kinds of monkeys live in Sierra Leone's forests. Hippos, crocodiles and manatees live in the rivers, along with the rare pygmy hippopotamus. Near Freetown, the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary rescues orphaned chimpanzees.

Large animals such as elephants and buffalo are now rarely seen outside parks and reserves. But the country has a rich variety of birds, and the Gola forest in the east is a stronghold for western chimpanzees and pygmy hippos.

Britannica notes that unrestricted hunting during the civil war (1991–2002) hit wildlife hard; elephants and buffalo are now rarely seen outside parks and reserves, while chimpanzees and monkeys remain common in forest zones and the birdlife came through relatively unscathed. Rivers hold hippos, crocodiles and manatees, including the rare pygmy hippopotamus. Protected areas include Outamba-Kilimi National Park in the north and, near Freetown, Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary for orphaned chimpanzees.

UNESCO calls the Gola-Tiwai Complex a stronghold of the globally threatened western chimpanzee and pygmy hippopotamus and of the white-necked rockfowl, with very low deforestation compared with other Upper Guinean forest sites; its rivers are part of a freshwater ecoregion it describes as a cradle of tilapia evolution. The coast and estuaries yield fish such as bonga, snapper and mackerel, and lobster.

About 7.5 million people live in Sierra Leone.

Many people speak Krio. Rice is the most important food. Dancing is a big part of life.

The 2021 census counted about 7.5 million people in Sierra Leone. There are about 18 peoples, and the Mende and the Temne are the largest. English is the official language, used in schools and government, but Krio, a language that grew from English and African languages, is the one most people share.

Most villages grow rice, and fishing is becoming more important. Dancing is one of the most loved parts of Sierra Leone's culture, with drums and wooden xylophones called balaphones. Football is the favorite sport.

Britannica counts about 18 ethnic groups; the Mende in the east and south and the Temne in the center and northwest are largest, alongside the Limba, Kuranko, Susu, Kono, Kisi, Sherbro and others. The Krio (Creoles), descendants of liberated Africans who settled the coast from the late 18th to the mid-19th century, live mainly around Freetown. Krio is the lingua franca and English the official language; the Vai script is one of Africa's few indigenous scripts. About two-thirds of people are Muslim and about one-fourth Christian.

Rural villages center on rice farming by extended families, with cattle herding mainly in the north. Britannica calls dancing the most outstanding feature of cultural life: the National Dance Troupe first won acclaim at the 1964–65 New York World's Fair. Mende and Kono weavers make handwoven cotton cloth, Temne dyers tie-dye with indigo and kola nut, and Freetown has had a literary tradition since the 19th century.