Fertility & birth rates in Gambia and Sierra Leone

Fertility rate in Gambia vs Sierra Leone chart

According to the latest available data on birth rates, the fertility rate in the Gambia was 4.01 children per woman in 2023, compared to 3.79 in Sierra Leone in 2023. The replacement level is considered to be 2.1 children per woman.

Check the Gambia vs Sierra Leone population clock for a dynamic visualization of the changing population.

The chart below showcases historical changes in the birth rates.

Table

Year	Fertility rate
	Gambia	Sierra Leone
1960	6.25	6.18
1961	6.23	6.21
1962	6.21	6.22
1963	6.2	6.26
1964	6.2	6.29
1965	6.19	6.31
1966	6.18	6.35
1967	6.21	6.38
1968	6.22	6.39
1969	6.25	6.39
1970	6.26	6.41
1971	6.33	6.43
1972	6.37	6.45
1973	6.41	6.47
1974	6.42	6.53
1975	6.43	6.55
1976	6.43	6.55
1977	6.43	6.57
1978	6.42	6.59
1979	6.41	6.58
1980	6.41	6.56
1981	6.4	6.55
1982	6.4	6.56
1983	6.39	6.57
1984	6.39	6.59
1985	6.36	6.59
1986	6.34	6.6
1987	6.3	6.61
1988	6.26	6.59
1989	6.25	6.57
1990	6.25	6.57
1991	6.19	6.55
1992	6.11	6.56
1993	6.03	6.57
1994	6.04	6.56
1995	5.99	6.56
1996	5.93	6.55
1997	5.85	6.53
1998	5.82	6.5
1999	5.77	6.42
2000	5.72	6.36
2001	5.67	6.31
2002	5.66	6.23
2003	5.66	6.09
2004	5.68	5.92
2005	5.71	5.81
2006	5.74	5.74
2007	5.69	5.64
2008	5.63	5.56
2009	5.57	5.45
2010	5.56	5.33
2011	5.54	5.21
2012	5.52	5.06
2013	5.39	4.87
2014	5.2	4.7
2015	5	4.55
2016	4.81	4.47
2017	4.61	4.39
2018	4.42	4.29
2019	4.33	4.19
2020	4.25	4.08
2021	4.17	3.98
2022	4.08	3.88
2023	4.01	3.79
2024	3.91	3.7
2025	3.8	3.61
2026	3.7	3.53
2027	3.6	3.47
2028	3.51	3.37
2029	3.41	3.3
2030	3.33	3.23
2031	3.24	3.18
2032	3.17	3.12
2033	3.1	3.07
2034	3.03	3.02
2035	2.97	2.97
2036	2.91	2.92
2037	2.86	2.88
2038	2.81	2.84
2039	2.76	2.79
2040	2.71	2.76
2041	2.67	2.72
2042	2.63	2.68
2043	2.59	2.65
2044	2.56	2.62
2045	2.52	2.58
2046	2.49	2.55
2047	2.46	2.53
2048	2.43	2.5
2049	2.4	2.47
2050	2.38	2.45

Children 0-14 years as share of population

Table

Year	Share of people 0-14 years old
	Gambia	Sierra Leone
1960	41%	38.2%
1961	40.8%	38.3%
1962	40.7%	38.3%
1963	40.8%	38.5%
1964	41%	38.8%
1965	41.3%	39.1%
1966	41.5%	39.4%
1967	41.6%	39.6%
1968	41.8%	39.9%
1969	41.9%	40.1%
1970	42%	40.3%
1971	42.1%	40.6%
1972	42.2%	40.7%
1973	42.3%	40.9%
1974	42.4%	41.1%
1975	42.6%	41.3%
1976	42.8%	41.4%
1977	43%	41.6%
1978	43.3%	41.7%
1979	43.5%	41.8%
1980	43.7%	41.9%
1981	44%	42%
1982	44.3%	42.1%
1983	44.6%	42.2%
1984	44.9%	42.3%
1985	45%	42.5%
1986	45.2%	42.6%
1987	45.4%	42.7%
1988	45.5%	42.8%
1989	45.6%	42.9%
1990	45.7%	42.9%
1991	45.8%	43%
1992	45.9%	43.1%
1993	46%	43.2%
1994	46.3%	43.3%
1995	46.5%	43.4%
1996	46.7%	43.5%
1997	46.9%	43.5%
1998	46.9%	43.6%
1999	46.9%	43.7%
2000	46.8%	43.8%
2001	46.7%	43.9%
2002	46.6%	43.9%
2003	46.4%	43.9%
2004	46.1%	43.9%
2005	45.9%	43.8%
2006	45.6%	43.7%
2007	45.3%	43.6%
2008	45.1%	43.5%
2009	44.8%	43.4%
2010	44.5%	43.2%
2011	44.3%	43%
2012	44.1%	42.8%
2013	43.9%	42.5%
2014	43.7%	42.2%
2015	43.6%	41.8%
2016	43.3%	41.4%
2017	43.1%	41%
2018	42.8%	40.6%
2019	42.4%	40.2%
2020	42%	39.8%
2021	41.6%	39.4%
2022	41.2%	39%
2023	40.7%	38.5%
2024	40.2%	38.1%
2025	39.7%	37.7%
2026	39.2%	37.2%
2027	38.5%	36.8%
2028	37.9%	36.3%
2029	37.3%	35.9%
2030	36.7%	35.5%
2031	36.2%	35.2%
2032	35.7%	34.8%
2033	35.2%	34.4%
2034	34.8%	34%
2035	34.3%	33.6%
2036	33.9%	33.2%
2037	33.4%	32.8%
2038	33%	32.4%
2039	32.5%	32%
2040	32.1%	31.6%
2041	31.7%	31.2%
2042	31.3%	30.9%
2043	30.9%	30.5%
2044	30.5%	30.2%
2045	30.2%	29.8%
2046	29.8%	29.5%
2047	29.5%	29.2%
2048	29.1%	28.8%
2049	28.8%	28.5%
2050	28.4%	28.2%

Children aged 0-14 make up 40.2% of the population in the Gambia and 38.1% in Sierra Leone in 2024, compared to 45.7% and 42.9% respectively in 1990.

Demographics of the Gambia and Sierra Leone compared.

Natural population change in Gambia vs Sierra Leone by year

For the past 10 years, the annual natural population change (excluding migration) has been +2.59% in the Gambia and +2.31% in Sierra Leone. The chart below illustrates the comparison of the absolute yearly changes resulting from births and deaths.

Table

Year	Population change due to births and deaths
	Gambia	Sierra Leone
1960	8,420	38,192
1961	8,778	40,022
1962	9,150	41,603
1963	9,493	43,569
1964	9,825	45,487
1965	10,162	47,223
1966	10,422	49,486
1967	10,823	51,734
1968	11,215	53,126
1969	11,670	54,768
1970	12,128	56,513
1971	12,842	58,484
1972	13,432	60,279
1973	14,046	62,443
1974	14,628	65,357
1975	15,256	67,560
1976	16,032	69,506
1977	16,773	71,663
1978	17,424	74,130
1979	18,543	75,992
1980	19,566	77,932
1981	20,156	80,111
1982	21,894	82,457
1983	23,175	84,628
1984	24,586	87,072
1985	25,795	88,869
1986	27,195	90,902
1987	28,452	94,235
1988	29,938	96,344
1989	31,504	98,298
1990	33,163	100,778
1991	34,584	105,477
1992	35,951	103,251
1993	37,302	103,317
1994	38,880	101,486
1995	39,681	100,885
1996	40,253	104,140
1997	40,742	105,433
1998	41,842	103,906
1999	42,533	102,295
2000	43,249	110,754
2001	44,154	116,647
2002	45,156	126,429
2003	46,473	130,312
2004	48,276	132,661
2005	50,010	137,234
2006	52,335	144,127
2007	53,653	145,740
2008	55,032	149,855
2009	56,575	152,669
2010	58,554	155,338
2011	60,571	158,858
2012	62,745	160,915
2013	63,510	161,265
2014	63,185	160,137
2015	62,832	162,275
2016	62,358	168,784
2017	61,665	173,259
2018	60,854	178,772
2019	61,701	181,068
2020	62,209	181,015
2021	62,239	183,326
2022	63,634	186,625
2023	65,118	188,788

Maternal mortality chart: Gambia vs Sierra Leone

The maternal mortality rate, which is the probability of dying during childbirth or within 42 days of pregnancy termination, is 354 deaths per 100,000 live births in the Gambia, compared to 354 deaths in Sierra Leone.

Table

Year	Maternal mortality per 100K births
	Gambia	Sierra Leone
1985	1,454	1,506
1986	1,401	1,530
1987	1,360	1,533
1988	1,302	1,549
1989	1,258	1,575
1990	1,207	1,572
1991	1,167	1,699
1992	1,115	1,681
1993	1,072	1,696
1994	1,039	1,755
1995	999	1,777
1996	956	1,726
1997	928	1,721
1998	867	1,753
1999	830	1,731
2000	810	1,603
2001	794	1,518
2002	772	1,492
2003	749	1,433
2004	719	1,366
2005	707	1,294
2006	682	1,168
2007	675	1,132
2008	653	1,093
2009	634	1,054
2010	632	1,018
2011	634	967
2012	628	915
2013	606	842
2014	561	821
2015	527	730
2016	490	633
2017	469	578
2018	450	491
2019	422	464
2020	400	422
2021	420	403
2022	365	370
2023	354	354

Under-five mortality rates

The chance that a newborn baby will die before reaching age five is 4.41% in the Gambia and 9.43% in Sierra Leone. Below is the historical data on under-five mortality rates.

Table

Year	Mortality rate before reaching 5 years of age, per 1,000 live births
	Gambia	Sierra Leone
1960	36.2%	39.1%
1961	35.5%	38.5%
1962	34.8%	38%
1963	34.1%	37.4%
1964	33.5%	36.8%
1965	32.8%	36.2%
1966	32.1%	35.6%
1967	31.5%	35%
1968	30.9%	34.5%
1969	30.2%	33.9%
1970	29.5%	33.4%
1971	28.9%	32.9%
1972	28.2%	32.3%
1973	27.5%	31.9%
1974	26.9%	31.4%
1975	26.2%	30.9%
1976	25.5%	30.5%
1977	24.9%	30%
1978	24.2%	29.6%
1979	23.6%	29.2%
1980	23%	28.9%
1981	22.3%	28.5%
1982	21.7%	28.1%
1983	21%	27.8%
1984	20.4%	27.5%
1985	19.7%	27.2%
1986	19.1%	26.9%
1987	18.4%	26.6%
1988	17.8%	26.4%
1989	17.2%	26.2%
1990	16.6%	25.9%
1991	16%	25.7%
1992	15.5%	25.5%
1993	14.9%	25.3%
1994	14.4%	25%
1995	13.9%	24.7%
1996	13.3%	24.3%
1997	12.8%	23.9%
1998	12.3%	23.4%
1999	11.8%	22.9%
2000	11.3%	22.4%
2001	10.9%	21.8%
2002	10.4%	21.3%
2003	9.95%	20.7%
2004	9.52%	20.1%
2005	9.11%	19.4%
2006	8.71%	18.8%
2007	8.33%	18.1%
2008	7.98%	17.3%
2009	7.64%	16.6%
2010	7.31%	15.9%
2011	7.01%	15.2%
2012	6.73%	14.5%
2013	6.45%	13.9%
2014	6.18%	13.7%
2015	5.93%	13.8%
2016	5.7%	12.3%
2017	5.47%	11.8%
2018	5.27%	11.3%
2019	5.07%	10.9%
2020	4.89%	10.5%
2021	4.72%	10.1%
2022	4.56%	9.77%
2023	4.41%	9.43%