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Showing posts from December, 2018

Sierra Leone's masses don't have to die young

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Another year. Another year-end list.  It should come as no surprise Sierra Leone is poor. The "25 Poorest Countries in the World" list, published Wednesday, Nov. 7, ranked the West African nation at No. 8, with GDP estimated at $11.53 billion in 2017, placing 151 out of 185 countries. As well as GDP from the Monetary Fund, writers at 24/7 Wall Street included life expectancy, using data from the World Bank. Although Sierra Leone's population continues to grow, rising to 7.41 million in 2017,  life expectancy at birth in 2016 was only 51.8 years. That's a notable change. In 2011, a "World's Poorest" list ranking Niger, Chad, Liberia, Burkina Faso, CAF, Guinea, and Sierra Leone said: Life expectancy in developing countries had increased from 59 years in 1970 to 70 years in 2010, according to the UN's 2011 Human Development Report.  Earlier in 2018, Business Insider  ranked where people live on less than $1,000 per year.  The article t