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 2026-09-05 · 1 metros tracked

🗺️ Geography1 metro

Liberia metro footprint, shaded by composite tier.

Loading map…
1 polygons

Hover for rank, click to open the metro page. Boundaries derived from Overture Maps administrative divisions; metros without source coverage are omitted.

🏙️ 1 tracked metro
1 metros
🗂️ Counties

15 entries listed under Liberia. Click 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.

💹 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
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

marks a leader associated with atrocities or defiance of law, systemic subversion of democratic institutions, or a criminal conviction. Convictions arising from political persecution, and annulled convictions, are excluded. denotes a monarch. These are editorial designations, applied per entry rather than derived automatically.

Other

Joseph Boakai✦ Current

2024Present

President

Tenure: 2y 6m 2d

George Weah

20182024

President

Tenure: 6y 0d

George Weah

20182024

Prime Minister

Tenure: 6y 0d

Republic of Liberia

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

20062018

President

Tenure: 12y 6d

Moses Blah

20032003

President

Tenure: 2m 3d

⚠️ Charles Taylor

19972003

President

Tenure: 6y 9d

⚠️ Samuel Doe

19801990

President

Tenure: 10y 4m 28d

William Tolbert

19711980

President

Tenure: 8y 8m 20d

William Tubman

19441971

President

Tenure: 27y 6m 20d

Edwin Barclay

19301944

President

Tenure: 13y 1m 0d

Charles D. B. King

19201930

President

Tenure: 10y 10m 28d

Daniel Edward Howard

19121920

President

Tenure: 8y 4d

Arthur Barclay

19041912

President

Tenure: 7y 11m 28d

Garretson W. Gibson

19001904

President

Tenure: 3y 24d

William D. Coleman

18961900

President

Tenure: 4y 29d
Show all 24 leaders

Joseph James Cheeseman

18921896

President

Tenure: 4y 10m 8d

Hilary R. W. Johnson

18841892

President

Tenure: 7y 11m 28d

Alfred Francis Russell

18831884

President

Tenure: 11m 18d

Anthony W. Gardiner

18781883

President

Tenure: 5y 13d

James Spriggs Payne

18761878

President

Tenure: 2y 4d

Joseph Jenkins Roberts

18721876

President

Tenure: 4y 2d

James Skivring Smith

18711872

President

Tenure: 1m 28d

Edward James Roye

18701871

President

Tenure: 1y 9m 23d

James Spriggs Payne

18681870

President

Tenure: 1y 11m 28d

Daniel Bashiel Warner

18641868

President

Tenure: 4y 2d

Stephen Allen Benson

18561864

President

Tenure: 7y 11m 28d

Joseph Jenkins Roberts

18481856

President

Tenure: 8y 4d

transitional government

Gyude Bryant

20032006

Chairman

Tenure: 2y 3m 2d

interim government

Amos Sawyer

19901994

President

Tenure: 3y 9m 10d

Commonwealth of Liberia

Joseph Jenkins Roberts

18421848

Governor

Tenure: 6y 2d

Thomas Buchanan

18391841

Governor

Tenure: 2y 5m 2d
📈 Power over timeThe Power Atlas →
Today
Minor#174 · 0.0%
3%5%8%10%19502000
Power (headline share)Latent (material mass)Recognised (standing)
Liberia · share of world power, 1920–2026

The powerline 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.

⚔️ Conflicts since 19452 interstate wars · click to expand
Ivory Coast Military of Ivory Coast,Liberia Liberian mercenaries,Ivory Coast COJEP,Ivory Coast FPI
Combat deaths:

Bold = principal belligerent. Source: Wikipedia, “List of interstate wars since 1945.”

👥 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
Liberia · people, 1800–2023 · dashed to 2026 is projected

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

Tap or drag across the chart to read any year: the estimate to 2023, then the UN median, its bands and the scenarios.

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
Show all 16 decades
2030
181k born · 49k died · -16k net migration
TFR 3.43 · life expectancy 63.2 · median age 20.0
2040
192k born · 59k died · -4k net migration
TFR 2.94 · life expectancy 64.5 · median age 22.4
2050
193k born · 69k died · -17k net migration
TFR 2.62 · life expectancy 65.8 · median age 24.7
2060
193k born · 83k died · -3k net migration
TFR 2.40 · life expectancy 67.1 · median age 27.1
2070
192k born · 99k died · -4k net migration
TFR 2.25 · life expectancy 68.2 · median age 29.5
2080
188k born · 118k died · +7k net migration
TFR 2.14 · life expectancy 69.4 · median age 31.7
2090
180k born · 136k died · -233 net migration
TFR 2.04 · life expectancy 70.5 · median age 33.6
2100
173k born · 148k died · -882 net migration
TFR 1.97 · life expectancy 71.5 · median age 35.2

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. Click a card for the full record.