World population/Sierra Leone
Africa
Population of Sierra Leone
8,996,749
Growing by 0.01 people every second
#100
world rank
0.11%
of world population
+1.98%
yearly change
+177,954
people this year
261,328
births a year
72,455
deaths a year
How the figure for Sierra Leone is worked out
The United Nations puts the population of Sierra Leone at 8,996,749 on 1 July 2026, and projects 9,174,703 for 1 July 2027. The counter above moves steadily between those two published points, which works out at about 0.01 people added every second.
That places Sierra Leone at number 100 of the 237 countries and areas the United Nations reports, holding 0.11 per cent of everyone alive, and somewhere in the middle of the 58 entries in Africa.
Underneath that single number sit roughly 261,328 births and 72,455 deaths a year. The gap between them is natural increase; the difference between natural increase and the change in total population is migration.
None of this is counted in real time. No country registers births and deaths as they happen and publishes them to the second. The seconds ticking above are arithmetic between two annual reference points, and the broad figure is far more reliable than its final digits.
Other countries in Africa
Ranked by population.