Demographics
Sierra Leone had an estimated 2010 population of 5,245,695 and growth rate of 2.216% a year. The country's population is mostly young, with an estimated 41.7% under 15, and rural, with an estimated 62% of people living outside the cities. As a result of migration to cities the population is becoming more urban with an estimated rate of urbanisation growth of 2.9% a year. Population density varies greatly with the country. The Western Area Urban District, including Freetown, the capital and largest city, has a population density of 1,224 persons per square km whereas the largest district Koinadugu has a density of 21.4 persons per square km.
Although English is the official language, spoken at schools, government administration and the media, Krio (derived from English and several indigenous African languages, the language of the Sierra Leone Krio people), is the most widely spoken language in virtually all parts of Sierra Leone. The Krio language is spoken by 90% of the country's population and unites all the different ethnic groups, especially in their trade and interaction with each other. According to the World Refugee Survey 2008, published by the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, Sierra Leone had a population of 8,700 refugees and asylum seekers at the end of 2007. Nearly 20,000 Liberian refugees voluntarily returned to Liberia over the course of 2007. Of the refugees remaining in Sierra Leone nearly all were Liberian.
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Largest cities or towns of Sierra Leone Government of Sierra Leone 2004 Census |
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| Rank | City name | District | Pop. | ||||||
Freetown
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1 | Freetown | Western Area Urban District | 853 651 | Kenema
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| 2 | Bo | Bo District | 233 684 | ||||||
| 3 | Kenema | Kenema District | 182 106 | ||||||
| 4 | Makeni | Bombali District | 109 125 | ||||||
| 5 | Koidu Town | Kono District | 92 770 | ||||||
| 6 | Lunsar | Port Loko District | 24 450 | ||||||
| 7 | Port Loko | Port Loko District | 23 195 | ||||||
| 8 | Pandebu-Tokpombu | Kenema District | 20 219 | ||||||
| 9 | Kabala | Koinadugu District | 19 074 | ||||||
| 10 | Waterloo | Western Area Urban District | 18 579 | ||||||
The populations quoted above for the five largest cities are from the 2004 census. Other figures are estimates from the source cited. Different sources give different estimates. Some claim that Magburaka should be included in the above list, but one source estimates the population at only 14,915, whilst another puts it as high as 85,313. "Pandebu-Tokpombu" is presumably the extended town of Torgbonbu which had a population of 10,716 in the 2004 census, though "Gbendembu" had a larger population of 12,139 in that census. In the 2004 census, Waterloo had a population of 34,079.
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