Freetown Population Increase, 1963

August 28, 2017

Freetown Population Increase, 1963 - 2015

Figures for the Freetown (Western Area Urban and Rural) population taken from the final Sierra Leone 2015 census report are plotted below for the 52 year period, 1963 to 2015. As is to be expected the figures show high growth over the entire period. In absolute terms the Freetown population increased almost 8-fold. As a percentage of the overall Sierra Leone population there was also a steady increase from 8.9% to 21.2% of the overall population. Conventional wisdom has it that Freetown's population ballooned as a result of the 11-year rebel war from 1991 to 2002. The figures, from Statistics Sierra Leone, do not support this conclusion. Instead they show that the sharpest increase in Freetown's population occurred in the inter-censal period from 1974 to 1985. During this period Freetown's population, as a percentage of the national population, increased by 4.2% from 11.6% to 15.8% of the overall population. By contrast, in the 19-year inter-censal period from 1985 to 2004 (the census, normally held in 10 or 11 year cycles had to be postponed because of the then-ongoing rebel war) Freetown's share of the overall national population increased by 3.2% from 15.8% to 19.0%. The average annual growth rate of the Freetown population in the period from 1963 to 1974 was 4.4%; in the period from 1974 to 1985 it was 5.2%; from 1985 to 2004 (including the war years) it was 2.9% and from 2004 to 2015 it was 4.3%. Thus, the census figures show that since Independence the slowest period of Freetown's growth was the intercensal period that included the war years.

	1963 Census	1974 Census	1985 Census	2004 Census	2015 Census
Western Urban	127917	276247	469776	772873	1055964
Western Rural	67106	40065	84467	174249	444270
Western Area Total	195023	316312	554243	947122	1500234
Sierra Leone	2180355	2735159	3515812	4976871	7092113
Western Area % of national	8.9	11.6	15.8	19.0	21.2
Western Area % of 1963 Western Area	100	162	284	486	769

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