Districts of Sierra Leone national capital Freetown, which makes up the Western Area Urban District, is governed by a directly elected city council headed by a mayor. The districts are further divided into a total of 190 (prior to 2017, 149) chiefdoms, whose elected leaders provided most of local government from 1896 to 2004, when they were supplemented by elected local councils. Districts of Sierra Leone The provinces of Sierra Leone are divided into 16 districts, as of July 2017. Previously, the country was divided into 14 districts. The Western Area is divided into two districts. Sierra Leone's capital Freetown is located in the
Languages of Sierra Leone Languages of Sierra Leone Sierra Leone is a multilingual country. English is the "de facto" official language, and Krio is the most widely spoken. Other major languages include Mende, which is spoken by 31% of the population as a mother tongue and as a lingua franca in southern Sierra Leone, and Temne, which is spoken by 37% as a mother tongue and also as a lingua franca in the northern province, north Western province, and other part of Sierra Leone and some part of the Capital and the Western Area. Other languages include Kono, Kissi, Kuranko, Limba, Fula (Pular),Mandingo and