The descendants of the emancipated slaves who migrated from the United States makes up no more than 5 percent of the population. The overall population of Liberia is only 3.2 million people. Sierra Leone is an independent nation that borders Liberia on its eastern side. Its population is 5.2 million people with a natural increase of only 2.6 percent. A bulk of the population is engaged in subsistence farming.
Minerals are the country's principle export.
The staple food crop of Sierra Leone is rice. Imports of rice are still needed because they can not grow a sufficient amount for themselves. Sierra Leone is the world's leader of rutile, a titanium ore, which produces half of all earnings. Guinea, from the former French Empire, is one of the least developed countries in West Africa. It lies just west of Sierra Leone.