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
Sierra Leone Sierra Leone Sierra Leone (, ), officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, informally Salone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the northeast, Liberia to the southeast and the Atlantic Ocean to the southwest. It has a tropical climate, with a diverse environment ranging from savanna to rainforests. The country has a total area of and a population of 7,075,641 as of the 2015 census. Sierra Leone is a constitutional republic with a directly elected president and a unicameral legislature. Sierra Leone has a dominant unitary central government. The president is the head of state