Population below five meters above sea level — all countries

Population below five meters above sea level — Sierra Leone

Population below five meters above sea level in Sierra Leone in 2015 — 3.54%. Ranked 117 in the world out of 215. Since 1990, the indicator has fallen by 0.33 pp.

2015 3.54% −0.09 pp vs 2000
World rank 117of 215
Period maximum 3.86%1990
Period minimum 3.54%2015

Trend over time

1990–2015 · % of population

Population below five meters above sea level — Sierra Leone, 1990–20153.53.63.73.83.91990199319961999200220052008201120141990: 3.86%2000: 3.63%2015: 3.54%
Change over the period: −0.33 pp Annual average: -0.01 pp

Comparison, 2015

How the value compares with the world and the groups this territory belongs to: Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone 3.54%
World 4.06%
Western Africa computed 3.33%
Low-income countries computed 1.05%
Population below five meters above sea level — Sierra Leone, by year Sierra Leone All countries CSV XLSX
Year % Change, pp
2015 3.54
2000 3.63
1990 3.86

About the indicator

The share of the population living less than five meters above sea level. The threshold is not arbitrary: this is the zone already threatened by storm surges and, over the coming century, by sea level rise. In absolute numbers the densely populated deltas of Asia come first; by share, island states and the Netherlands — and the latter show that a high share does not equal high risk, since everything depends on whether coastal defenses are in place.

Important: The series is not annual: the World Bank computes it from a digital elevation model for individual benchmark years, the latest of which is 2015, and has not updated it since. No one has fresher data of this kind; the values are best read as an order-of-magnitude estimate.

Source: World Development Indicators (World Bank), license CC BY 4.0.