AFRICA

Sierra Leone

A West African nation on the Atlantic coast, Sierra Leone takes its name from Portuguese for 'lion mountains', and its capital Freetown was founded as a home for formerly enslaved people.

WHAT THE FLAG MEANS ◢

Three horizontal bands of green, white and blue. Section 3 of the constitution declares the flag and describes it as exactly that, three horizontal stripes from top to bottom, and fixes the official proportions at nine units across to six down; it assigns the colours no meaning. They are conventionally read as green for the agriculture and mountains, white for unity and justice, and blue for the natural harbour at Freetown and the hope of contributing to world peace.

Sierra Leone FACTS ◢

Capital	Freetown
Continent	Africa
Population	8,819,794 (2025)
Area	71,740 km²
Population density	123/km²
Currency	Leone (SLE)
Official language	English
Calling code	+232
Internet TLD	.sl
Time zone	UTC±00:00
Drives on the	Right
ISO codes	SL / SLE

DID YOU KNOW? ◢

Its name comes from the Portuguese 'Serra Leoa', meaning 'lion mountains', a nod to the hills above Freetown.
Freetown was founded in the late 1700s as a settlement for formerly enslaved people.
One of the largest natural harbours in the world lies at Freetown, on the estuary of the Sierra Leone River.
Tiwai Island is a wildlife sanctuary sheltering one of the highest concentrations of primate species anywhere.