The rarely visited country shaped like a circle that's the 'roundest in the world'

Officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, the junt under 27,700-square mile country found on the southwest coast of West Africa has been named the world’s roundest country.

Sierra Leone was given a “roundness index” of 0.934, with a perfect circular country being one with an index of one. It was followed by Nauru, Zimbabwe, the Vatican and Poland to round out the top five. Monaco earned 15th place, with the UK and France in 170th and 171st respectively. The least round country in the world was the Marshall Islands, while the least round non-island was Chile, unsurprising since it is 2,500 miles long. 

The index was worked out by Gonzalo Ciruelos, an Argentinian blogger and data-fanatic, who used information from the Natural Earth sovereign states dataset. He did this by computing the midpoint of two random points on the country’s border. 

Sierra Leone has a tropical climate, with environments ranging from savannas to rainforests including the Guinean forest-savanna mosaic. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea to the north. Its capital and largest city is Freetown, a major port city lying at the Atlantic Ocean. 

In 2015, the country had a population of over seven million. Sierra Leone is also incredibly culturally diverse, home to approximately 18 ethnic groups including the Mende and Temne peoples which together make up over 68 percent of the population. The Creole people, descendents of freed African-American, Afro-Caribbean slaves and liberated Africans constitute about 1.2 percent.

The official language of Sierra Leone is English. However, its name derives from the Lion Mountains, a range that stretches 19 miles on the Freetown peninsula by the ocean. It was originally named Serra Leoa, Portuguese for “lioness mountains”, by the Portuguese explorer Pedro de Sintra in 1462 who was among the first Europeans to explore the West African coast. 

Sierra Leone was granted independence from the UK in 1961 but faced significant political instability and periods of civil unrest post-independence, including a civil war from 1991 to 2002. 

It is also one of the poorest countries in the world, with just under 50 percent of the population living on less than £1.45 per day in 2019, according to ISS African Futures. Deforestation for commercial timber and for agricultural land is a major concern and represents enormous losses of natural economic wealth for the country. Overfishing is also an issue.

That being said, Sierra Leone is still a tourist destination, with the sector being a key growth engine for the country’s service sector and a major source of foreign exchange. It has also helped local communities and employs thousands of Sierra Leoneans. According to a 2022 report, the sector provides for over 41,000 people and contributes 2.6 percent of GDP, with the UK being the largest source of international visitors, followed by Germany, Western Europe, the USA and Asia. 

Freetown is a popular destination for tourists, with a vast expanse of beaches along the Freetown Peninsula, including Lumley-Aberdeen beach (also good for nightlife), the Caribbean-like River Number 2 Beach with emerald-green clear waters and palm trees and Laka Beach. Sierra Leone is also home to beautiful rainforests, mountains and wildlife, waiting to be explored. 

The Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary, located within the peninsula’s large rainforest reserve and just a few miles from the centre of Freetown, has a collection of rare and endangered chimpanzees. At Sierra Leone Museum a collection of pre-colonial and colonial artefacts and items of historical significance can be viewed. 

Other popular tourist destinations include the Freetown Cotton Tree in the city centre which is a significant national monument and integral to the founding of the city and Bunce Island, a boat ride away from the city, which is home to the ruins of the slave fortress that was used during the Transatlantic slave trade.