Liberia

AfricaCapital city: MonroviaCapital metro: MonroviaPresident: Joseph Boakai
2026 population
5.2M
Rank #127 globally
Area
111k km² (43k sq mi)
Metros tracked
1
42% of population in metros
Composite score
1.6
Rank #180 globally

population: 2022 census (10 Nov 2022) · indicators as of 5 Sep 2026 · 1 metros tracked

🗺️ Geography1 metro

Liberia metro footprint, shaded by composite tier.

Loading map…
1 polygons

Select a metro for its rank and a link to its page. Boundaries derived from Overture Maps administrative divisions; metros without source coverage are omitted.

🏙️ 1 tracked metro
1 metros
#1020Monrovia★ Capital▲ Largest
Montserrado · Margibi (Gibi & Marshall) · 2.2M · Emerging Metro
1.6
🗂️ Counties

15 entries listed under Liberia. Select any to see its metros and footprint.

15 total
📋 At a glance
Official language
English
Government
Herrenvolk democracy
Legislature
Legislature of Liberia
Demonym
Liberian
Time zone
UTC±00:00
Driving side
Right
Calling code
+231
Internet TLD
.lr
ISO 3166
LR
Established
1822
Highest point
Mount Wuteve (1,440 m (4,724 ft))
National anthem
All Hail, Liberia, Hail!

Facts via Wikidata.

🗣️ Languages of Liberia

English first; 5 languages share the country; 1 official.

LanguageShareStatus
English83%Official
Kru Pidgin English74%None
Guinea Kpelle20%None
Bassa14%None
kro10%None
Southern Grebo9.9%None

Shares count first and second language, so they overlap and can add past 100%.

English reach
83%
Tier 3 country
Effective languages
1.0
Official-language gap
17%
English is spoken by 83%

Liberia on the languages board · Language power

💹 Economy and developmentLow income
Human Dev. Index
#175 / 191
0.510
UNDP · 2023
GDP
#160 / 193
$5.2B
World Bank · 2025
GDP per capita
#181 / 193
$915
World Bank · 2025
GDP/capita (PPP)
#181 / 190
$2.0k
World Bank · 2025
GNI/capita (Atlas)
#180 / 192
$830
World Bank · 2025
Life expectancy
#180 / 194
62.3 yrs
World Bank · 2024
Median age
18.4 yrs
UN WPP · 2023
Urban population
#118 / 194
56%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. growth
2.1%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. density
#128 / 193
57/km² (148/mi²)
World Bank · 2023
Foreign-born
#147 / 193
1.3%
World Bank · 2024
Rule of law
#115 / 175
0.36
V-Dem · 2025
Gini index
#84 / 166
35.3
World Bank · 2016
Internet users
#166 / 193
32%
World Bank · 2024
Inflation
#155 / 185
8.3%
World Bank · 2025
CO₂ per capita
#13 / 192
0.2 t
Global Carbon Budget · 2024
Renewable electricity
#63 / 186
54%
Ember · 2024

Ranks are among sovereign countries with data; ★ marks a top-5% finish. Sources: World Bank Open Data and Our World in Data (UNDP, UN WPP, V-Dem, Global Carbon Budget, Ember, Energy Institute; CC BY 4.0). Each card credits its originating body. Renewable share is of electricity generation, not of primary energy. Each figure is the most recent year available.

Alliances & Organisations3 full memberships

Political & Economic

Regional

Subregional

Full memberDashed border = Candidate / ApplicantItalic = Dialogue / Observer

🏛️ Leadership History31 leaders · click to expand

is an editorial flag: associated with atrocities against civilians, systemic subversion of the constitutional order, or a criminal conviction (political persecutions and annulled convictions excluded). It is a curated list, not a measurement, so a name without one has not been cleared of anything. Hover a badge for the reason on file.

Other

Joseph Boakai✦ Current
President · 2y 6m 2d
2024–Present
George Weah
President · 6y 0d
2018–2024
George Weah
Prime Minister · 6y 0d
2018–2024

Republic of Liberia

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
President · 12y 6d
2006–2018
Moses Blah
President · 2m 3d
2003–2003
Charles Taylor
President · 6y 9d
1997–2003
Samuel Doe
President · 10y 4m 28d
1980–1990
William Tolbert
President · 8y 8m 20d
1971–1980
William Tubman
President · 27y 6m 20d
1944–1971
Edwin Barclay
President · 13y 1m 0d
1930–1944
Charles D. B. King
President · 10y 10m 28d
1920–1930
Daniel Edward Howard
President · 8y 4d
1912–1920
Arthur Barclay
President · 7y 11m 28d
1904–1912
Garretson W. Gibson
President · 3y 24d
1900–1904
William D. Coleman
President · 4y 29d
1896–1900

transitional government

Gyude Bryant
Chairman · 2y 3m 2d
2003–2006

interim government

Amos Sawyer
President · 3y 9m 10d
1990–1994

Commonwealth of Liberia

Joseph Jenkins Roberts
Governor · 6y 2d
1842–1848
Thomas Buchanan
Governor · 2y 5m 2d
1839–1841
📈 Power over timeThe Power Atlas →
Today
Minor#174 · 0.0%
3%5%8%10%19502000
Power (headline share)Latent (material mass)Recognised (standing)

The power line is the headline share of world power, running from the state’s first ranked year (benchmark estimates with wide error bars before 1816). Latent power is material mass a state could mobilise (population, manpower, heavy industry). Recognised power is what the system actually treats it as (military spending, productive economy, reach, and status such as a Security Council seat or nuclear arsenal). When latent runs above recognised, a power is rising or under-rated; when recognised runs higher, it is punching above its weight or coasting on prestige. Material sub-indices run 1816 through 2016.

⚔️ Wars and conflicts2 interstate wars · click to expand
Anti-Doe Armed Forces elements,NPFL,INPFL (1989–1992),NPFL-CRC (1994–1996),Libya,Burkina Faso,RUF
Combat deaths: 15,750+

Bold = principal belligerent. Source: Wikipedia, “List of interstate wars since 1945.” Figures marked “COW battle deaths” are Correlates of War battle-death counts, which run lower than total deaths.

👥 Population over time
Population 2023
5.5m
#120 in the world
Since 1800
18×
from 314k
Peak
2023
at its largest now
Share of world
0.07%
0.03% in 1800
1.5m2.9m4.4m5.9m18001850190019502000

Our World in Data population (CC BY): UN WPP 2024 from 1950, Gapminder v7 1800-1949, HYDE 3.3 earlier; today's borders. Figures above are as of 2023, the last year that is estimated rather than forecast. The dashed tail to 2026 is a UN WPP medium-variant projection. It is drawn because the line should reach the present, and drawn differently because it has not happened yet: no rank, peak or share on this page uses it. Before 1950 the series is reconstruction rather than contemporaneous statistics, which is worth knowing when a country’s peak sits back there. The current population shown elsewhere on this page comes from the workbook and is unchanged by this. Note that people and share of world can move in opposite directions. A country can grow steadily and still become a smaller part of humanity, which is what happened to almost every rich country after 1960.

👥 To 2100

The UN’s probabilistic projection for Liberia: the median with its 80% and 95% bands, the UN’s own high, low and zero-migration scenarios beside it. Not this site’s model; the site reads it and says what it implies.

Peak on the median
after 2100
still growing at 2100
2050
8.9m
95% band 5.4m to 15.2m
2100
12.7m
95% band 4.5m to 39.1m
2100 against 2025
2.21×
median still rising in 2100
10.3m20.5m30.8m41.0m1950197520002025205020752100
estimateUN median80% and 95% bandshigh and low fertilityzero migration

What drives it

Births, deaths and net migration on the UN medium path, with fertility, life expectancy and median age, every decade from 1950.

1950
40k born · 23k died · -615 net migration
TFR 6.00 · life expectancy 38.0 · median age 17.9
1960
55k born · 29k died · +2k net migration
TFR 6.39 · life expectancy 38.1 · median age 18.2
1970
70k born · 35k died · +2k net migration
TFR 6.58 · life expectancy 40.4 · median age 17.6
1980
94k born · 40k died · +4k net migration
TFR 6.87 · life expectancy 44.1 · median age 16.9
1990
118k born · 65k died · -713k net migration
TFR 6.37 · life expectancy 37.6 · median age 16.8
2000
127k born · 43k died · -2k net migration
TFR 5.88 · life expectancy 51.9 · median age 17.2
2010
154k born · 40k died · +3k net migration
TFR 5.06 · life expectancy 59.4 · median age 17.4
2020
164k born · 44k died · -10k net migration
TFR 4.17 · life expectancy 61.3 · median age 17.9

Every country to 2100 →

Source: United Nations, DESA, Population Division. World Population Prospects 2024. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 IGO. Estimates to 2023; projections 2024 to 2100, medium variant and probabilistic intervals. The UN revises every two years; this is the WPP 2024 revision.

🏆 National Teams

Liberia on the international stage. Select a card for the full record.