Sierra Leone: Fuel imports (% of merchandise imports)

Key figures

Since 1963 it is down 11.3 percentage points from 12.42% in 1963. The World Bank has no value for 40 of the years in between; the chart leaves those gaps open rather than joining across them.

What the numbers say

In 2018, Sierra Leone's fuel imports (% of merchandise imports) rose 0.55 percentage points on 2017 (from 0.58% to 1.12%).

Across the 9 yearly changes before that (1964 to 2017), the average change was −5.34 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 8.72 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.7 standard deviations above that average, so it was an ordinary year: it sits within the range of normal year-to-year movement.

On record, the biggest yearly rise was 5.57 percentage points in 1974 and the biggest yearly fall was 21.04 percentage points in 2016. The numbers show how large and when, not why; for the cause, look at what happened in that country in those years.

Worked out from the yearly values above. How the checks work: standard deviation, z-scores and straight-line trends.

How it compares

See how every economy compares in the full ranking.

Closest to Sierra Leone in the 2018 ranking

• Greenland — 4th of 7: 16.42%
• Sudan — 5th of 7: 12.86%
• Bangladesh — 6th of 7: 10.12%

What this measures

Fuels comprise the commodities in SITC (Rev. 3) section 3 (mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials). This indicator is expressed as a percentage of merchandise imports which is comprised of goods whose economic ownership is changed between a non-resident and a resident and that are not included in the following specific categories: goods under merchanting, non-monetary gold, and parts of travel, construction, and government goods and services n.i.e.

Limitations: Previous editions contained data based on the SITC revision 1. Data for earlier years in previous editions may differ because of the change in methodology. Concordance tables are available to convert data reported in one system to another.

Regional and income-group figures are computed by the World Bank as a weighted average.

All 16 values

Fuel imports (% of merchandise imports) in nearby economies

• Angola — 16.4% (2025)
• Benin — 13.65% (2024)
• Botswana — 20.49% (2023)
• Burkina Faso — 41.15% (2024)
• Burundi — 22.15% (2023)
• Cabo Verde — 14.36% (2024)
• Cameroon — 24.18% (2023)
• Central African Republic — 26.48% (2024)
• Comoros — 10.23% (2023)
• Congo, Dem. Rep. — 19.04% (2024)

More private sector & trade data for Sierra Leone

• Merchandise trade (% of GDP) — 45.91% (2025)
• Merchandise imports (current US$) — US$1.89 billion (2025)
• Merchandise exports (current US$) — US$1.53 billion (2025)
• Merchandise exports to high-income economies (% of total merchandise exports) — 13.74% (2023)
• Merchandise exports by the reporting economy, residual (% of total merchandise exports) — 0.00395% (2023)
• Merchandise exports by the reporting economy (current US$) — US$513.99 million (2023)
• Merchandise imports from economies in the Arab World (% of total merchandise imports) — 10.91% (2023)
• Merchandise imports from high-income economies (% of total merchandise imports)

Reading data like this

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Questions people ask

What is Sierra Leone's fuel imports (% of merchandise imports)?

1.12% in 2018, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1963?

It is down 11.3 percentage points from 12.42% in 1963. The highest value was 39.71% in 2002 and the lowest 0.58% in 2017.

Is the latest change in fuel imports (% of merchandise imports) unusual for Sierra Leone?

In 2018, Sierra Leone's fuel imports (% of merchandise imports) rose 0.55 percentage points on 2017 (from 0.58% to 1.12%). Across the 9 yearly changes before that (1964 to 2017), the average change was −5.34 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 8.72 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.7 standard deviations above that average, so it was an ordinary year: it sits within the range of normal year-to-year movement.

Where does this data come from?

Source

World Bank, World Development Indicators, indicator TM.VAL.FUEL.ZS.UN, licensed CC BY 4.0. Original source: Comtrade database, United Nations (UN), publisher: UN Statistics Division; World Integrated Trade Solution system (WITS); Staff estimates, World Bank (WB) Figures are fetched from the World Bank API and refreshed monthly; see the series on data.worldbank.org. The full definition and method are in the World Bank's metadata glossary. Comparisons use the same World Bank release.

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