A work done by Alieu A. Sanoe and Aaron describing Liberia Population pattern. It describe Liberia population in details with necessary population varibles.

1. ZHENJING SCI-TECH UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF ECONOMIC AND MANAGEMENT
INTERNATIONAL TRADE GEOGRAPHY GROUP REPORT
TOPIC : POPULATION OF LIBERIA
NAME : ALIEU A. SANOE AND AARON (张发祥)
MAJOR : INTERNATIONAL TRADEAND ECONOMIC
ID NUM : 2019529628005/2019333518029
SUBMITTED TO : MA XIN (马欣)

2. Table of contents
Introduction
Birth, death and child mortality rates
Population growth rate
Literacy rate
Age composition
Conclusion

3. Introduction
This report presents the analysis of the population size and distribution of
Liberia’s population data. The report collects information on population related
variables such as cultural composition, age and sex distribution and, on the
geographic distribution of the population. In addition, the report discusses
emerging issues from the age – sex structure, household composition, cultural
composition, population distribution and policy implications. Furthermore, it
draws supplementary information from other documents to provide a clear
picture of what needs to be done by the Government of Liberia to attain its short
and long term development. Liberia is a country on the West African coast. It
has a population of around 5 million and covers an area of 111,369 square
kilometers (43,000 sq. mi) and English is the official language. The population
density in Liberia is 53 per Km2.The total land area is 96,320 Km2. 52.6 % of
the population is urban. Liberia population is equivalent to 0.06% of the total
world population. Liberia ranks number 125 in the list of countries (and
dependencies) by population.
Religion, Tribes, cities and Parentages of population they cover
There are officially 17 ethnic groups that make up Liberia's
Indigenous African population, Kpelle the largest. Also have the so called
Bassa, Gio, Kru, Grebo, Mandingo, Mano, Krahn, Gola, Gbandi, Loma, Kissi,
Vai, Sapo, Belleh (Kuwaa), Mende and Dey.

4. There are also more or less nomadic groups like the Fula, who engage mostly in
trade, and the Fanti, who are often fishermen or traders of fish, usually
from Ghana, living seasonally and more and more often permanently in Liberia.
Then there are Americo-Liberians, who are descendants of free-born and
formerly enslaved African Americans who arrived in Liberia from 1822 onward
and Congo People (descendants of immigrants from the Caribbean), making up
an estimated 5% of the population. They used to dominate political life in
Liberia and still have a lot of influence.
Religion
According to the 2008 National Census, 85.6% of Liberia's population
practices Christianity. Muslims comprise 12.2% of the population, largely
coming from the Mandingo and Vai ethnic groups. The vast majority of
Muslims are Malikite Sunni, with
sizeable Shia and Ahmadiyya minorities. Traditional indigenous religions are
practiced by 0.6% of the population, while 1.4% subscribeto no religion.
Cities and Population
The largest cities in Liberia, ranked by population. The total population of
Liberia is 4,475,353 as of 1-Jul-19, which represents 0.06% of global
population and ranks Liberia # 125 worldwide. Numbers generally reflect the
city population, rather than the urban areas, municipality, or urban
agglomeration.
http://www.geonames.org/LR/largest-cities-in-liberia.html

5. Birth rate
Taking into consideration the definition of birth rate which is the total number
of live births per 1,000 population divided by the length of the period in
years. The birth rate (along with mortality and migration rates) is used to
calculate population growth which intern reflect the so called population growth
rate. The birth rate in Liberia from 2008 to 2018. According to the source (word
data and statistica) the "crude birth rate indicates the number of live births
occurring during the year, per 1,000 population estimated at midyear." In 2018,
the crude birth rate in Liberia amounted to 33.04 live births per 1,000
inhabitants.
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.TFRT.IN?locations=LR

6. The word data shows that Liberia birth rate from the 60’s was on the rise
because of peace and stability in the country. People at that time didn’t really
have ideas on contraceptive in prevention on pregnancy so it lead to the increase
in the average birth rate until the 90’s where it started taking a downward
sloping trend due to war. The civil war in Liberia was the immediate purposeto
birthrate decreasing and started causing the so called death rate of Liberia to
increase rapidly.
DeathRate
Like the birthrate Mortality rate, or death rate, is a measure of the number
of deaths (in general, or due to a specific cause) in a particular population,
scaled to the size of that population, per unit of time. In 2019, death rate for
Liberia was 7.4 per 1,000 people. Death rate of Liberia fell gradually from 24.9
per 1,000 people in 1970 to 7.4 per 1,000 people in 2019. But viewing the
graph there was a problem in the 1990. (Did you notice?).
Liberia death rate started increasing rapidly from 1989 the death rate took tread
upward from 1989 to the end of the 1996. The Liberian civil war was one of
Africa's bloodiest. From 1989 to 1996, it claimed the lives of more than 200,000
Liberians and further displaced a million others into refugee camps in
neighboring countries. Child soldiers were used throughout the war with
ignorance they kill lot people leading to the high death rate of Liberia. After the
death rate got back on it normal trend downward due to a more stable and
https://knoema.com/atlas/Liberia/Death-
rate#:~:text=In%202019%2C%20death%20rate%20for,per%201%2C000%20people%2
0in%202019.

7. peaceful country, and also increase in medical education, availability of new
medical facilities, government policy on security and etc.
Child mortality rate
In 2019, child mortality rate for Liberia was 84.6 deaths per 1,000 live births.
Child mortality rate of Liberia fell gradually from 284 deaths per 1,000 live
births in 1970 to 84.6 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2019. Looking at the below
graph you can also understand that the child mortality rate in Liberia increase
relatively high in the 1990. This change was also due to the so called civil war
in the Liberian history in the 90’s. Since there was war in the country leading to
no secure place for ladies to give birth to kids easily they end up losing their
newly birth babies to the war. No hospital, no good medical facility to breath
children and etc, these things in general led to the sudden change in the Liberia
child mortality rate in the 90’s.
Analysis on death and birth rate of Liberia
The difference between birth and death rates is the rate of natural increase in
population or so called population rate. It measures the degree to which a
population is growing. Since birth and death rates are measured as the number
of births (or deaths) occurring per 1,000 population we can say the birthrate of
Liberia which was discussed was 33.04 minus the discussed death rate which
was 7.04 and now divided by 10 will give you the so called 2.56 %( Liberia
population growth rate).
Liberia growth rate = = = 2.56%
Birthrate – Deathrate
10
33.04 – 7.0
10
https://knoema.com/atlas/Liberia/Child-mortality-
rate#:~:text=In%202019%2C%20child%20mortality%20rate,1%2C000%20live%20births%20in%202019.

8. Population Growth rate
Like many African nations, the birth rate in Liberia is almost double the
worldwide average, leading to an extreme annual growth rate. As of 2019, the
population of Liberia was increasing 2.56% each year.
The data shows the annual change of Liberia population growth rate. Liberia
population growth rate is relatively higher than Bhutan and Lesotho having
1.2% and 0.8% respectively, and also has a high population growth rate as
compare to most African nations. Taking strongly into consideration that higher
birth rate is the cause of high population growth rate. As relates to the graph
above you can see the War mentioned in 1990 that lead to the decrement in
Liberia’s population growth rate, we can tell that the death rate was very high in
1990 relative to the birth rate. (Difference between death and birth rates was
high). In the introduction we talked about the Liberia population which is about
4.819 million and know that it annual increment is 2.5%. Now let’s get to know
how many percentage of the population is literate or illiterate or the so called
Literacy rate.
datacommons.org/place/country/LBR

9. Literacy rate
Adult literacy rate is the percentage of people ages 15 and above who can both
read and write with understanding a short simple statement about their everyday
life. Liberia literacy rate for 2017 was 48.3%, a 12.48% increase from 2007.
Note: This was the last posted Literacy rate information posted onLiberia.
Literacy rate
The graph illustrate 12.48% improvement or increment in Liberia literacy rate
from 2007 which was due to people being able to read and write, citizens
developing their education. It is a given that if citizens want a great education,
they will have to increase literacy rates. In 2007 Liberia started prioritizing
primary education so that the children that are already in schoolcan get a good
base. Most likely Illiterate adults in Liberia were more likely to fall victim to
poorhealth and to have poorhealth care treatment later in life that lead to the
abrupt increment in literacy rate by 2007.
https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/LBR/liberia/literacy-
rate#:~:text=Adult%20literacy%20rate%20is%20the,a%205.36%25%20increase%20from%20200.7

10. Literacy rate analysis
According to global estimates 1,336,767 persons or 47.5% of adult population
(aged 15 years and above) in Liberia are able to read and write. Accordingly
about 1,477,575 adults are illiterate. Literacy rate for adult male population is
62.42% (871,272 persons). 524,528 are illiterate. Literacy rate for adult female
population is 32.82% (465,495 persons). 953,047 are illiterate. Youth literacy
rates are 64.66% and 43.97% for males and females accordingly. The overall
youth literacy rate is 54.47%. Youth literacy rate definition covers the
population between the ages of 15 to 24 years.
Sex ratio and Age composition
In 2015, male to female ratio for Liberia was 100.68 males per 100 females.
Male to female ratio of Liberia increased from 99.48 males per 100 females in
1970 to 100.68 males per 100 females in 2015 growing at an average annual
rate of 0.13%.
https://knoema.com/atlas/Liberia/topics/Demographics/Population/Male-to-female-
ratio#:~:text=Liberia%20%2D%20Male%20to%20female%20ratio%20of%20the%20total%20populatio
n&text=In%202015%2C%20male%20to%20female,average%20annual%20rate%20of%200.13%25.

11. The graph shows the changes in Liberia sex ratio (Males per 100 females) over
the past years more specifically from 1950 to 2015. Looking at the graph you
can tell that there is an abnormal change that occurin the sex ration during the
1990 just as the abnormal change in the child mortality rate mention before.
This suddenchange was also from the war in Liberia. At that time there were
huge quantity of men fighting the war that led to their death and reduction in
male percentage of sex ratio.
Age Composition
Age structure of Liberia:
0-14 years: 43.72% (male 1,062,766 /female 1,040,211)
15-24 years: 19.9% (male 478,041 /female 478,999)
25-54 years: 30.1% (male 711,963 /female 735,878)
55-64 years: 3.43% (male 84,474 /female 80,410)
65 years and over: 2.85% (male 67,229 /female 69,797) (2018 EST.)
This statistics provides the distribution of the population according to age of
Liberia. Information is included by sex and age group as follows: 0-14 years
(children), 15-24 years (early working age), 25-54 years (prime working age),
55-64 years (mature working age), 65 years and over (elderly.
Population Pyramid
The population pyramid of Liberia illustrates the age and sex structure of
Liberia’s population. The population is distributed along the horizontal axis,
with males shown on the left and females on the right. The male and female
populations are broken down into 5-year age groups represented as horizontal
bars along the vertical axis, with the youngest age groups at the bottomand the
oldest at the top. The shape of the population pyramid gradually evolves over
time based on fertility, mortality, and international migration trends.

12. Population Pyramid of Liberia
https://www.populationpyramid.net/liberia/2019/
As we can see the Liberia population pyramid has an expanding type. This type
of pyramid is common for developing countries with high birth and death rates.
Relatively short life expectancy, as well as low level of education and poor
health care are also describe such kind of population age distribution model.
Age dependency ratio
Dependency ratio of population is a ratio of people who are generally not in the
labor force (the dependents) to workforce of a country (the productive part of
population). The dependent part includes the population under 15 years old and
people aged 65 and over. The productive part of population accordingly consists
of population between 15 and 64 years. This ratio shows the pressure on
productive population produced by the dependent part of population. The total
dependency ratio of population in Liberia is 89.6 %. As we can see the
dependent part of population is comparable to the working part. It means that
each working personin Liberia must provide goods forhimself and cover

13. expenditure on one child or aged personadditionally. The value of 89.6 %
shows that the pressureon productive population in Liberia is very high.
Child dependency ratio
Child dependency ratio is a ratio of people below working age (under 15) to
workforce of a country.
Child dependency ratio in Liberia is 84 %.
Aged dependency ratio
Aged dependency ratio is a ratio of people above working age (65+) to
workforce of a country.
Aged dependency ratio in Liberia is 5.6 %.
Life expectancy
Life expectancy at birth is one of the most important demographic indicator to
consider in Liberia. It shows the number of years a newborn infant would live
assuming that birth and death rates will remain at the same level during the
whole lifetime. Total life expectancy (both sexes) at birth for Liberia is 57
years. This is below the average life expectancy at birth of the global population
which is about 71 years (according to Population Division of the Department of
Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations).
Male life expectancy at birth is 55.4 years.
Female life expectancy at birth is 58.6 year

14. Conclusion
The traditional population growth model of Liberia has brought
sufficient labor force to the country, promoted the development of all
aspects of the society, and at the same time, increased the burden on
the social infrastructure and people's living standards. We have
understood that the war in Liberia in the 1990 is of significant
importance when talking about the Liberia’s population pattern. The
war affected almost all the variables associated with population
pattern. It affected the growth rate, birthrate, death rate, sex ratio
and many other important population variables of Liberia’s
population. But in general with the data’s studied we can tell that
Liberia economic is gradually improving due to the increment in the
country nature rate of literacy over time and good economic policy
made by government. We have also learned the immense increment
in Liberia population growth rate every year (2.56) is gradually
causing over population but over time (future problem).
The country can solve this problem by providing more sex
education. Sex education is the first line of defense on the topic of
overpopulation. The more kids know about safe sex, the less likely
they are to have unplanned pregnancies at a young age. Also the
increment in access to contraceptive can also be a great help. A lot of
unplanned pregnancies occur across the world because women and
men don’t have access to contraception. Birth control is extremely
difficult to get in certain parts of the world, and when combined with
poor sex education the result is often an unplanned pregnancy. Even
though we know that over population gives more labor in the future
and parents in the population have a less pension burden but the
overall results harm the population and cause severe poverty. But
when the mentioned ideas will shall have been put into place this
growth model, like China's in the 1970s and 1980s, will develop into
a modern growth model in the future, and will also face the problem
of an aging population that China is facing now. Until then, make
Liberia richer and richer.

15. References
games.org.com
world bank data source
https://datacommons.org/place/country/LBR (Mostimportantlink, thisreference linkcontains
almostall the populationvariablesdata’sof Liberia)