Abstract

The Republic of Sierra Leone is a small coastal West African country bordered by Guinea and Liberia. Sierra Leone has an area of 71,620 square kilometers (about 28,000 square miles). The country is divided into four major Administrative Areas namely, The Western Area, Northern Province, Southern Province and Eastern Province.

The Provinces are divided into twelve districts and the districts are divided into one hundred and forty nine chiefdoms. Western Area is divided into (Western Urban) Freetown and Western Rural Areas. Freetown is divided into wards.

There are five Physical Regions in Sierra Leone: (i) The Central Plains, (ii) The Northern Woodlands Savannah, (iii) The South Western Upland, (iv) The Western Coastal Swamps and (v) the Western Peninsula Upland Region.

The country is mountainous; about 50% of the terrain is covered by mountains including the Capital, Freetown. Agriculture is the main occupation for the people of Sierra Leone; especially rice farming in which about 60% of the people are engaged through the practice of shifting cultivation.

Sierra Leone has a tropical climate with two very different seasons - the Dry Season, traditionally from November to April and the Rainy Season from May to October with July and August being the wettest months of the year. In 2004, the census was taken in December.

This is the final report of the 1985 National Population and Housing Census. It is an analytical report and provides a detailed picture of the demographic, socio-economic and household-housing situation in the country. The entire exercise was carried out by local analysts. Finally whereas the total population counted was 3,515,812, some characteristics like education, economic activity, fertility etc. are tabulated and therefore analysed for a total population of 3,222,901.

A number of volumes have preceded this final report. These volumes have presented data on various aspects of the country's population and the general housing conditions. These include data on the demographic, social and economic characteristics of the population; the analysis of age and sex structure; fertility and mortality; migration and housing. Furthermore, detailed and small-area statistics will be available on request at the Central Statistics Office.

The ultimate objective of the census was to enhance national capacity in planning by providing estimates of total population and its growth rates, fertility, mortality, and other related socio-economic indicators. Data collection was completed within the first two weeks of December 1985 and the provisional results submitted and accepted by Government in January 1986. Thereafter, machine processing of the data was carried out until April 1990 when the final statistical tables were produced. The results were finally endorsed by the Government of Sierra Leone in May, 1992 and a National Seminar for dissemination of the results was held in that same month.

A national undertaking of this magnitude depends for its accomplishment on a great number of factors. Adequate financial resources, technical know-how, national and unflinching public co-operation are among the most important ingredients for success.

In presenting this final report, the Central Statistics Office would again like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the valuable contributions made to the success of the project by various national and international organizations, government agencies and institutions and the general public. Financial assistance, material and human resources for the census project were provided by the Sierra Leone Government, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Federal Republic of Germany and the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).

Special mention must be made of the authors who worked on areas of speciality and who inspite of all the odds continued to support every stage of the census up to its final conclusion. The final editing of this report was jointly concluded by the Census Analyst, Professor H.B.S. Kandeh and UNFPA/Country Support Team (CST) Regional Adviser Dr. K. V. Ramachandran of the Economic Commission for Africa, whose dedication is greatly appreciated.

Finally, the resourcefulness and dedication demonstrated by Dr. Peter L. Tucker, Census Commissioner, staff of the National Population Secretariat and the Central Statistics Office have been acknowledged by all.

This publication marks the successful conclusion of the 1985 census and I now look forward to your continued support as the Government prepares for the 1996 National Population and Housing Census.

Geographic coverage

Country-Wide

Analysis unit

Household and individuals

Universe

Everybody that slept within the boundaries of Sierra Leone on Census Night (2nd - 3rd December 1985)

Kind of data

Census/enumeration data [cen]

Sampling procedure

There was no sampling procedures as it was a national survey

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The scope of a census as finally determined is reflected in the questionnaire which contains the topics to be investigated in the census. The selection of topics for the 1985 census was based on a balanced consideration of all the major factors involved, such as the requests for data submitted by the various Government Ministries; Local and International Organizations; the ability of the Enumerators to ask questions correctly and the respondents to furnish reasonably accurate answers; the need to keep the questionnaire of reasonable length and so on.

Because of the wide variety of data sought, the possibility of collecting some of the data by means of sampling methods was considered. The idea was, however, abandoned, because it was feared that this might introduce too many complications into the processing and yield results of doubtful quality. It was decided that the entire population was to be treated uniformly during the enumeration. The proposed questionnaire for the census was fully tested in the Pilot Census and the results provided the basis for the preparation of the final questionnaire (Appendix 1.1).

The questions on relationship within household, sex, age, nationality and place of birth are standard questions in African Censuses. In view of the great need for information on fertility and mortality, questions on children born and survival of parents were also included; data from which would yield reasonable estimates of these parameters by the use of special well-known techniques, since information on fertility and mortality had been collected in the 1974 Census. The inclusion of questions on housing represented a significant improvement over the 1963 and 1974 censuses. Questions on level of education and school attendance asked in 1963 and 1974 were repeated. No question was included on literacy, as experience had shown that this topic usually poses problems under enumeration conditions as there are other ways of obtaining reasonable estimates of literacy level.

Questions on the economic characteristics of the population are also regarded as basic in any census, although these topics are amongst the most difficult to investigate properly in African censuses. Much consideration was therefore given to the economic questions which were included in the questionnaire. There was a great demand for data on employment status and on the distribution of the working population by occupation and industry.

In the interest of ease of handling and economy, it was decided after the Pilot Census experience that the questionnaires should be bound up into pads of 50 questionnaires each consisting of 10 lines. Since the vast majority of household comprised less than 10 persons, the arrangement was very convenient as it allowed all the particulars for a household to be accommodated on one page in the majority of cases. This made for easier cross-checking of answering to questions pertaining to the members of the same household and promoted more accurate reporting.

Cleaning operations

Data editing took place at a number of stages through the processing, including:

• Office editing and coding
• Secondary editing

Detailed documentation of the editing of data can be found in the "Census Coding Schedule" document provided as an external resource

Sampling error estimates

Not Applicable. Entire population was covered country-wide

Data appraisal

A Post-Enumeration survey was conducted to assess the reliability of data or any observations regarding data quality.