Demographics of Nigeria

This article is about the demographic features of the population of Nigeria, including population density, ethnicity, vital statistics, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other demographic aspects of the population.

Census figures are used to determine regional funding and representation of ethnic and religious groups in government service, and to look at the makeup of a population. The census provides information on current and future patterns,^[1] providing an incentive for inflating local populations.

The most populated country in Africa, Nigeria, accounts for approximately one-sixth of the African population (or one fifth of the Sub-Saharan African population).

Approximately 50% of Nigerians are urban dwellers. At least 24 cities have populations of more than 100,000 . Nigeria is home to over 389 ethnic groups, and the variety of customs, languages, and traditions among them gives the country great cultural diversity.

The most numerous ethnic groups in the northern two-thirds of the country are the Hausa and the Fulbe/Fulani, the overwhelming majority of whom are Muslim. Other major ethnic groups of the north are the Nupe, Tiv, and Kanuri. The Yoruba people are the overwhelming majority in the southwest, as well as parts of the north-central region. Good numbers of the Yorubas are Muslims and about 60% are Christians, while the remainder hold traditional Yoruba views.

The predominantly Christian Igbo are found in the central parts of the southeast. Roman Catholicism is the largest Christian denomination in Igboland, but Anglicanism is also strong, as are Pentecostal and other Evangelical denominations.

The Igbo, Efik, Ibibio, Annang, and Ijaw constitute other Southeastern populations. The Urhobo-Isoko, Edo and Itsekiri constitute Nigerian's Midwest with the Urhobo standing out as the majority.

Persons of different ethnic backgrounds most commonly communicate in English, although knowledge of two or more Nigerian languages is widespread. Hausa, Yoruba, and Igbo are the most widely used native Nigerian languages. Nigerian Pidgin is used widely as an unofficial medium of communication especially in the Nigerian cities of Warri, Sapele, Ughelli, Benin and Port Harcourt.

Population

Historical population
Year	Pop.	±% p.a.
1952	30,403,305	—
1963	54,959,426	+5.53%
1991	88,992,220	+1.74%
2006	140,431,790	+3.09%
2011	162,471,000	+2.96%
2013	174,507,539	+3.64%
2015	182,202,000	+2.18%
2017	191,836,000	+2.61%

Nigeria's population has been increasing rapidly for at least the last 5 decades due to very high birth rates, quadrupling its population during this time. That type of growth rate is known as exponential. It is not growing at a linear rate.^[2] Growth was fastest in the 1980s, after child mortality had dropped rapidly, and has slowed slightly since then as the birth rate has declined slightly. According to the 2012 revision of the World Population Prospects the total population was 159,708,000 in 2010, compared to only 37,860,000 in 1950. The proportion of children under the age of 15 in 2010 was 44.0%, 53.2% was between 15 and 65 years of age, while 2.7% was 65 years or older.^[3]

	Total population (x 1000)	Population aged 0–14 (%)	Population aged 15–64 (%)	Population aged 65+ (%)
1950	37 860	41.7	55.3	3.0
1955	41 122	41.6	55.6	2.8
1960	45 212	41.6	55.6	2.8
1965	50 239	41.9	55.2	2.9
1970	56 132	42.6	54.6	2.8
1975	63 566	43.4	53.8	2.8
1980	73 698	44.0	53.2	2.8
1985	83 902	45.0	52.2	2.8
1990	95 617	44.9	52.3	2.9
1995	108 425	44.1	53.0	2.9
2000	122 877	43.5	53.7	2.8
2005	139 586	43.6	53.7	2.7
2010	159 708	44.0	53.2	2.7

Total and percent distribution of population by single year of age (Census 2006)

^[4]

Age	Population	Percent
Total	140.431.790	100
0-4	22.594.967	16,09
0	3.004.421
1	4.766.927
2	4.874.939
3	4.823.910
4	5.124.770
5-9	20.005.380	14,25
5	4.578.252
6	4.239.954
7	3.641.713
8	4.274.377
9	3.271.084
10-14	16.135.950	11,49
10	4.782.673
11	2.103.323
12	3.690.772
13	2.731.481
14	2.827.701
15-19	14.899.419	10,61
15	4.000.138
16	2.646.846
17	2.387.754
18	3.777.608
19	2.087.073
20-24	13.435.079	9,57
20	5.825.512
21	1.692.905
22	2.372.385
23	1.878.601
24	1.665.676
25-29	12.211.426	8,70
25	4.950.958
26	1.685.645
27	1.891.707
28	2.348.975
29	1.334.141
30-34	9.467.538	6,74
30	5.538.220
31	807.082
32	1.561.540
33	817.720
34	742.976
35-39	7.331.755	5,22
35	3.538.869
36	894.320
37	878.533
38	1.255.414
39	764.619
40-44	6.456.470	4,60
40	4.156.871
41	486.496
42	918.443
43	536.525
44	358.135
45-49	4.591.293	3,27
45	2.359.627
46	517.645
47	503.723
48	746.592
49	463.706
50-54	4.249.219	3,03
50	2.862.363
51	290.004
52	534.394
53	281.811
54	280.647
55-59	2.066.247	1,47
55	967.161
56	320.949
57	251.622
58	324.990
59	201.525
60-64	2.450.286	1,74
60	1.791.258
61	150.477
62	245.662
63	140.134
64	122.755
65-69	1.151.048	0,82
65	645.459
66	102.029
67	138.709
68	171.016
69	93.835
70-74	1.264.937	0,95
70	1.002.176
71	76.808
72	130.975
73	65.660
74	54.978
75-79	579.838	0,41
75	336.831
76	62.741
77	53.839
78	84.521
79	41.906
80-84	760.053	0,54
80	586.064
81	43.174
82	65.942
83	31.895
84	32.978
85+	715.225	0,51

Age group	Population	Male	Female	Percent
0-14	58.736.297	30.462.148	28.274.149	41,83
15-64	77.158.732	38.348.799	38.809.933	54,94
65+	4.536.761	2.534.541	2.002.220	3,23

Number of children 0-14	Number of women 15-49	Proportion
58.736.297	34.961.107	1,68

Structure of the population (DHS 2013) (males 87 034, females 89 529 = 176 574):

Age Group	Male (%)	Female (%)	Total (%)
0-4	17,4	16,7	17,1
5-9	16,8	15,9	16,3
10-14	12,7	11,9	12,3
15-19	8,6	9,0	8,8
20-24	6,7	7,8	7,2
25-29	6,6	8,3	7,4
30-34	5,9	6,2	6,1
35-39	5,2	5,4	5,3
40-44	4,3	4,0	4,2
45-49	3,9	3,7	3,8
50-54	2,6	3,3	2,9
55-59	2,5	2,3	2,4
60-64	2,3	2,0	2,1
65-69	1,5	1,2	1,3
70-74	1,3	1,0	1,2
75-79	0,7	0,5	0,6
80+	1,0	0,8	0,9

Age group	Male (%)	Female (%)	Total (%)
0-14	46,9	44,5	45,7
15-64	48,6	52,0	50,3
65+	4,5	3,5	4,0

Fertility and births

Total Fertility Rate (TFR)(Wanted TFR) and Crude Birth Rate (CBR):^{[5][6] [7]}

Year	CBR (Total)	TFR (Total)	CBR (Urban)	TFR (Urban)	CBR (Rural)	TFR (Rural)
1990	39	6,011 (5,8)	34	5,033 (4,8)	40	6,326 (6,1)
1999	37,7	5,15	35,6	4,50	38,5	5,44
2003	41,7	5,7 (5,3)	36,3	4,9 (4,6)	44,5	6,1 (5,7)
2008	40,6	5,7 (5,3)	36,8	4,7 (4,4)	42,5	6,3 (5,8)
2013	39	5,5 (4,8)	35	4,7 (4,1)	42	6,2 (5,3)

Year	TFR
1981-1982	6.3
1990	6.0
2003	5.7
2008	5.7
2013	5.5

Variable	TFR (2003)	TFR (2008)	TFR (2013)
Nigeria	5.7	5.7	5.5
Urban	4.9	4.7	4.7
Rural	6.1	6.3	6.2
Region - North Central	5.7	5.4	5.3
Region - North East	7.0	7.2	6.3
Region - North West	6.7	7.3	6.7
Region - South East	4.1	4.8	4.7
Region - South South	4.6	4.7	4.3
Region - South West	4.1	4.5	4.6

Fertility data as of 2013 (DHS Program):^[8]

State	Total fertility rate	Percentage of women age 15-49 currently pregnant	Mean number of children ever born to women age 40-49
Abuja	4.5	8.3	4.7
Benue	5.2	13.0	6.8
Kogi	4.2	9.4	5.7
Kwara	5.1	7.2	5.2
Nasarawa	5.4	10.8	5.8
Niger	6.1	14.8	5.8
Plateau	5.4	11.2	5.6
Adamawa	5.8	15.6	6.7
Bauchi	8.1	16.9	8.4
Borno	4.7	12.7	5.2
Gombe	7.0	14.3	7.9
Taraba	6.0	10.6	7.1
Yobe	6.6	13.4	7.4
Jigawa	7.6	15.1	7.6
Kaduna	4.1	21.0	5.7
Kano	6.8	12.6	7.7
Katsina	7.4	17.3	8.4
Kebbi	6.7	16.9	8.2
Sokoto	7.0	14.1	7.3
Zamfara	8.4	17.0	8.7
Abia	4.2	7.3	5.0
Anambra	4.2	6.0	4.7
Ebonyi	5.3	9.1	7.1
Enugu	4.8	8.4	5.9
Imo	4.8	8.3	5.0
Akwa Ibom	3.9	5.3	5.4
Bayelsa	4.5	11.3	6.1
Cross River	5.4	9.1	5.5
Delta	4.1	10.6	5.6
Edo	4.4	6.3	5.7
Rivers	3.8	9.5	4.9
Ekiti	4.3	7.0	5.2
Lagos	4.1	7.2	4.3
Ogun	5.4	10.6	4.9
Ondo	5.2	9.1	5.2
Osun	4.1	6.8	4.3
Oyo	4.5	11.9	5.1

Source: Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS)^[9]

Population projections

According to the United Nations, the population of Nigeria will reach 391 million by 2050. Nigeria might then be the 4th most populous country in the world. In 2100, the population of Nigeria may reach 545 million.^[10]

Vital statistics

Registration of vital events is in Nigeria not complete. The Population Departement of the United Nations prepared the following estimates. ^[3]

Period	Live births per year	Deaths per year	Natural change per year	CBR*	CDR*	NC*	TFR*	IMR*
1950-1955	1 821 000	1 169 000	652 000	46.1	29.6	16.5	6.35	200.7
1955-1960	1 998 000	1 181 000	817 000	46.3	27.3	19.0	6.35	186.6
1960-1965	2 202 000	1 197 000	1 005 000	46.1	25.1	21.0	6.35	172.9
1965-1970	2 431 000	1 244 000	1 187 000	45.7	23.4	22.3	6.35	159.6
1970-1975	2 801 000	1 306 000	1 495 000	46.8	21.8	25.0	6.61	147.3
1975-1980	3 232 000	1 377 000	1 855 000	47.1	20.1	27.0	6.76	134.2
1980-1985	3 642 000	1 467 000	2 175 000	46.2	18.6	27.6	6.76	125.3
1985-1990	4 018 000	1 657 000	2 361 000	44.8	18.5	26.3	6.60	126.0
1990-1995	4 446 000	1 866 000	2 580 000	43.6	18.3	25.3	6.37	126.0
1995-2000	4 984 000	2 075 000	2 909 000	43.1	17.9	25.2	6.17	118.6
2000-2005	5 606 000	2 230 000	3 376 000	42.7	17.0	25.7	6.05	104.0
2005-2010	6 309 000	2 224 000	4 085 000	42.2	14.9	27.3	6.01	89.9
2010-2015							5.74
* CBR = crude birth rate (per 1000); CDR = crude death rate (per 1000); NC = natural change (per 1000); IMR = infant mortality rate per 1000 births; TFR = total fertility rate (number of children per woman)

CIA World Factbook Population Statistics

The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.^[11]

Population: 174,507,539 (July 2013 est.) 178.5 million (2014 est.) ^[13]

Age structure:
0-14 years: 43.8% (male 39,127,615/female 37,334,281)
15-24 years: 19.3% (male 17,201,067/female 16,451,357)
25-54 years: 30.1% (male 25,842,967/female 26,699,432)
55-64 years: 3.8% (male 3,016,896/female 3,603,048)
65 years and over: 3% (male 2,390,154/female 2,840,722) (2013 est.)

Median age:
total: 17.9 years
male: 17.4 years
female: 18.4 years (2013 est.)

Population growth rate: 2.54% (2013 est.)

Birth rate: 38.78 births/1,000 population (2013 est.)

Death rate: 13.2 deaths/1,000 population (2013 est.)

Net migration rate: -0.22 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2013 est.)

Urbanization: urban population: 50% of total population (2010)
rate of urbanization: 3.5% annual rate of change (2010-15 est.)

Life expectancy at birth
total population: 51.56 years
male: 51.58 years
female: 51.55 years (2000 est.)

total population: 46.94 years
male: 46.16 years
female: 47.76 years (2009 est.)

total population: 52.05 years
male: 48.95 years
female: 55.33 years (2012 est.)

male: 52 years
female: 53 years (2014 est.) ^[13]

HIV/AIDS adult prevalence rate
3.1% (2007 est.)
3.6% (2009 est.)

people living with HIV/AIDS
2.6 million (2007 est.)
3.3 million (2009 est.)

Education and literacy

• Definition: Entire population of Nigeria of all ages, even at birth, who can read and write in any language.
• Total population: 78.6%
• Male: 84.35%
• Female: 72.65% (all: National Bureau of Statistics, 2010 National Literacy Survey)^[14]

Emigration

Today millions of ethnic Nigerians live abroad, the largest communities can be found in the United Kingdom (500,000-3,000,000)^[15] and the United States (600,000-1,000,000 Nigerians), other countries that followed closely are South Africa, Gambia, and Canada respectively. There are also large groups in Ireland , Portugal and many other countries.^[16] .Inspiration for emigration is based heavily on socio-economical issues such as warfare, insecurity, economical instability and civil unrest. Between 1400-1900, of 1.4 million of 2 million emigrants were slaves sent to the Americas. This is due to the fact that the land now known as Nigeria was a central point for 4 slave trades during the 19th century. Though bondage represented a great deal, an estimated 30,000 Nigerian inhabitants would relocate to Kano City and Gambia to take advantage of financial opportunities afforded by fertile land and available natural resources. What's more, the presence of gold mines and rail lines along the cold coast of what is now Ghana, attracted an estimated 6,500 Nigerian citizens to attain financial gain and opportunity. The population of Nigerians in Ghana rose to roughly 149,000 before the 1969 alien expulsion order would displace nearly the entire population to surrounding countries.^[17]

Religion

Nigeria is nearly equally divided between Christianity and Islam. The majority of Nigerian Muslims are Sunni and are concentrated in the northern, central and south-western zones of the country, while Christians dominate in some central states( especially Plateau and Benue states), and the south-east and south-south regions. Other religions practiced in Nigeria include African Traditional Religion, Hinduism, Bahai, Judaism, The Grail Message, and the Reformed Ogboni Fraternity^[18]

According to a 2009 Pew survey, 45% of Nigeria's population were Muslims.^[19] A later Pew study in 2011 calculated that Christians now formed 56.8% of the population in Nigeria, while Muslims comprised 41.1%.^[20][21] Adherents of other religions make up 1.4% of the population.^[22]

The shift of population balance between Muslims and Christians is a result of northern and southern Nigeria being in different stages of demographic transition. The Muslim-dominated north is in an earlier stage of the demographic transition with much higher fertility rates than the south, whose split Christian/Muslim population is further along in the transition, and whose fertility rates are declining. Decreasing fertility can be linked to more access to education, use of contraceptives, and differing beliefs regarding family planning.^[23]

The 1999 introduction of Sharia Law in 12 northern Nigerian states led to massive violence and unrest and caused an ethnic and religious rift between Sharia and Non-Sharia states, a divide that has deepened with time.^[23]

Crime

Nigeria is home to a substantial network of organized crime, active especially in drug trafficking. Nigerian criminal groups are heavily involved in drug trafficking, shipping heroin from Asian countries to Europe and America; and cocaine from South America to Europe and South Africa. .^[24] The various Nigerian Confraternities or "campus cults" are active in both organized crime and in political violence as well as providing a network of corruption within Nigeria. As confraternities have extensive connections with political and military figures, they offer excellent alumni networking opportunities. The Supreme Vikings Confraternity, for example, boasts that twelve members of the Rivers State House of Assembly are cult members.^[25] On lower levels of society, there are the "area boys", these are organized gangs mostly active in Lagos who specialize in mugging and small-scale drug dealing. According to official statistics, gang violence in Lagos resulted in 273 civilians and 84 policemen killed in the period of August 2000 to May 2001.^[26]

"the result of factors such as endemic local corruption, which facilitates illicit trafficking; the Biafra civil war, which contributed to a proliferation of firearms; the oil boom of the 1970s, which led to the embezzlement of public funds; and the economic crisis of the 1980s, which was accompanied by a rise in robberies. The expansion of the Nigerian diaspora and organized crime went hand in hand. Global migration boosted prostitution, drug trafficking and fraud, the three main activities of Nigerian syndicates. The smuggling of Nigerian sex workers became a whole industry that now extends from Switzerland to France and Italy (where black prostitutes are called “fireflies”), and has even reached the prudish kingdom of Saudi Arabia, from which 1,000 women are said to be deported every month by the authorities."^[27]

The high crime rate among Nigerian migrants also leads to stereotyping Nigerians as criminals; thus, in Cameroon, Nigerian migrants are perceived collectively by the inhabitants of Cameroon as likely to be oil smugglers or dealers in stolen cars. In the Netherlands, the debate on Nigerian crime reached an intensity described as a "moral panic" by one scholar.^[28][29] In Switzerland, the crime rate of Nigerian young males was reported as 620% that of Swiss males in same age group (2009 data), the second highest crime rate of any nationality, just below that of Angolan nationals (at 630%).^[30]

Nigeria is also pervaded by political corruption. It is ranked 136 out of 168 countries in Transparency International's 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index.^[31]

References

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