exhaustion; civil war depleting natural resources; overfishing
natural hazards: dry, sand-laden harmattan winds blow from the Sahara
(November to May); sandstorms, dust storms
international agreements: party to - Biodiversity, Endangered Species,
Law of the Sea, Marine Life Conservation, Nuclear Test Ban; signed,
but not ratified - Climate Change, Environmental Modification

@Sierra Leone:People

Population: 4,753,120 (July 1995 est.)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 44% (female 1,054,826; male 1,020,943)
15-64 years: 53% (female 1,310,506; male 1,216,510)
65 years and over: 3% (female 72,982; male 77,353) (July 1995 est.)

Population growth rate: 2.63% (1995 est.)

Birth rate: 44.65 births/1,000 population (1995 est.)

Death rate: 18.38 deaths/1,000 population (1995 est.)

Net migration rate: NA migrant(s)/1,000 population (1995 est.)
note: thousands of refugees, fleeing the civil strife in Sierra Leone,
are taking refuge in Guinea

Infant mortality rate: 138.8 deaths/1,000 live births (1995 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 46.94 years
male: 44.07 years
female: 49.89 years (1995 est.)

Total fertility rate: 5.9 children born/woman (1995 est.)

Nationality:
noun: Sierra Leonean(s)
adjective: Sierra Leonean

Ethnic divisions: 13 native African tribes 99% (Temne 30%, Mende 30%,
other 39%), Creole, European, Lebanese, and Asian 1%

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 (the language of the re-settled
ex-slave population of the Freetown area and is lingua franca)

Literacy: age 15 and over can read and write English, Mende, Temne, or
Arabic (1990 est.)
total population: 21%
male: 31%
female: 11%

Labor force: 1.369 million (1981 est.)
by occupation: agriculture 65%, industry 19%, services 16% (1981 est.)

note: only about 65,000 wage earners (1985)

@Sierra Leone:Government

Names:
conventional long form: Republic of Sierra Leone
conventional short form: Sierra Leone

Digraph: SL

Type: military government

Capital: Freetown

Administrative divisions: 3 provinces and 1 area*; Eastern, Northern,
Southern, Western*

Independence: 27 April 1961 (from UK)

National holiday: Republic Day, 27 April (1961)

Constitution: 1 October 1991; sus