As of July 2024, Nigeria's population was estimated at around 229.5 million. Between 1965 and 2024, the number of people living in Nigeria increased at an average rate of over two percent. In 2024, the population grew by 2.42 percent compared to the previous year. Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa. By extension, the African continent records the highest growth rate in the world. Africa's most populous country Nigeria was the most populous country in Africa as of 2023. As of 2022, Lagos held the distinction of being Nigeria's biggest urban center, a status it also retained as the largest city across all of sub-Saharan Africa. The city boasted an excess of 17.5 million residents. Notably, Lagos assumed the pivotal roles of the nation's primary financial hub, cultural epicenter, and educational nucleus. Furthermore, Lagos was one of the largest urban agglomerations in the world. Nigeria's youthful population In Nigeria, a significant 50 percent of the populace is under the age of 19. The most prominent age bracket is constituted by those up to four years old: comprising 8.3 percent of men and eight percent of women as of 2021. Nigeria boasts one of the world's most youthful populations. On a broader scale, both within Africa and internationally, Niger maintains the lowest median age record. Nigeria secures the 20th position in global rankings. Furthermore, the life expectancy in Nigeria is an average of 62 years old. However, this is different between men and women. The main causes of death have been neonatal disorders, malaria, and diarrheal diseases.

This is a webmap that displays the population density by state of the country Nigeria as at 1991. It gives a visual, easy to understand display of the difference in population density among the different states using a graduated colour scheme. The population density is calculated by dividing the states total population by the are of its landmass in m².

This is a webmap that displays the population density by state of the country Nigeria as at 2016. It showcases a visual, easy-to-understand display of the difference in population density among the different states using a graduated colour scheme. The population density is calculated by dividing the states total population by the are of its landmass in m².

This statistic shows the total population of Nigeria from 2013 to 2023 by gender. In 2023, Nigeria's female population amounted to approximately 112.68 million, while the male population amounted to approximately 115.21 million inhabitants.

Geographic coverage

National

Analysis unit

• Household
• Individual

Universe

18 of the 37 states in Nigeria were selected using procedures described in the methodology report

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

A. Sampling Frame The sampling frame was the 2006 National Population Census. For administrative purposes, Nigeria has 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory. These states are grouped into six geopolitical zones - the North Central, North East, North West, South East, South South and South West. The states in turn are divided into 776 Local Governments. The demographic and political characteristics of the states vary considerably. For example, the number of component local government areas in the states ranges from 8 in Bayelsa State (in the South South) to 44 in Kano State (in the North West). Likewise state populations vary widely from 1.41 million in the Abuja Federal Capital Territory to 9.38 million in Kano State. The National Bureau of Statistics splits the country further into 23, 070 enumeration areas (EAs). While the enumeration areas are equally distributed across the local government areas, with each local government area having 30 enumeration areas, the differences in the number of local government areas across states implies that there are also huge differences in the number of enumeration areas across states. Appendix table 1 summarizes the population according to the 2006 population census (in absolute and proportionate numbers), number of local government areas, and number of enumeration areas in each state .

Given the above, a stratified random sampling technique was thought to be needed to select areas according to population and the expected prevalence of migrants. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) provided a randomly selected set of enumeration areas and households spread across all states in the Federation from the 2006 sampling frame. Every state in Nigeria has three senatorial zones (often referred to as North, Central and South or East, Central and West). The NBS sample enumeration areas were distributed such that within each state, local government areas from each senatorial zones were included in the sample, with Local Governments in each state nearly evenly distributed between rural and urban areas. In all, a total of 3188 enumeration areas were selected. These enumeration areas were unevenly spread across States; some states in the North West (Kano, Katsina, and Jigawa), and a few in the South South (Akwa Ibom and Delta) had over 100 enumeration areas selected while others such as Imo and Abia in the South East, and Borno, Gombe and Taraba in the North East, had as few as 20 enumeration areas selected. This selection partially reflected the relative population distribution and number of Local Government Areas in the component states. Annex Table B shows details of the states and geopolitical regions, their shares in population of the country, the number of Local Government Areas and enumeration areas in each state and the number of enumeration areas given in the NBS list that formed the frame for the study.

B. The Sample for the Migration Survey

a. Sample Selection of States, Local Governments and Enumeration Areas Originally, the intention was to have proportionate allocation across all states, using the population of each state in the 2006 Census to select the number of households to be included in the sample. But it was later recognized that this would not yield enough migrant households, particularly those with international migrants, especially as the total number of households that could likely be covered in the sample to was limited to 2000. Consequently, a disproportionate sampling approach was adopted, with the aim of oversampling areas of the country with more migrants. According to Bilsborrow (2006), this approach becomes necessary because migrants are rare populations for which a distinct disproportionate sampling procedure is needed to ensure they are adequately captured. Given the relative rareness of households with out-migrants to international destinations within the 10 year reference period (selected by the World Bank for all countries) prior to the planned survey, sampling methods appropriate for sampling rare elements were desirable, specifically, stratified sampling with two-phase sampling at the last stage.

Establishing the strata would require that there be previous work, say from the most recent Census, to determine migration incidence among the states. However, the needed census data could not be obtained from either the National Bureau of Statistics or the National Population Commission. Therefore, the stratification procedure had to rely on available literature, particularly Hernandez-Coss and Bun (2007), Agu (2009) and a few other recent, smaller studies on migration and remittances in Nigeria. Information from this literature was supplemented by expert judgement about migration from team members who had worked on economic surveys in Nigeria in the past. Information from the literature and the expert assessment indicated that migration from households is considerably higher in the South than in the North. Following this understanding, the states were formed into two strata- those with high and those with low incidence of migration. In all, 18 States (16 in the South and 2 in the North) were put into the high migration incidence stratum while 19 states (18 in the North and 1 in the South) were classified l into the low migration incidence stratum (column C of Appendix Table 1).

The Aggregate population of the 18 states in the high migration incidence stratum was 67.04 million, spread across 10,850 Enumeration areas. Thus, the mean population of an EA in the high migration stratum was 6179. In turn, the aggregate population of the 19 states in the low migration incidence stratum was 72.95 million spread across 12,110 EAs yielding a mean EA population of 6024. These numbers were close enough to assume the mean population of EAs was essentially the same. To oversample states in the high stratum, it was decided to select twice as high a proportion of the states as in the low stratum. To further concentrate the sample and make field work more efficient in being oriented to EAs more likely to have international migrants, we decided to select randomly twice as many LGAs in each state in the high stratum states as in the low stratum states.

Thus, 12 states were randomly selected with probabilities of selection proportionate to the population size of each state (so states with larger populations were accordingly more likely to fall in the sample) from the high stratum states. Then two LGAs were randomly selected from each sample state and 2 EAs per sample LGA (one urban, one rural) to yield a total of 12 x 2 x 2 or 48 EAs in the high stratum states. For the low stratum, 6 states were randomly selected. From each of these, 1 LGA was randomly picked and 2 EAs were selected per sample LGA to give a total of 6 x 1 x 2 or 12 EAs in the low stratum. This yielded a total of 60 EAs for both strata. Given the expected range of 2000 households to be sampled, approximately 67 households were to be sampled from each local government area or 34 households from each enumeration area.

So far, the discussion has assumed two groups of households - migrant and non-migrant households. However, the study was interested in not just lumping all migrants together, but rather in classifying migrants according to whether their destination was within or outside the country. Migrant households were thus subdivided into those with former household members who were international migrants and those with former household members who were internal migrants. Three strata of households were therefore required, namely:

1. Households with an international migrant: at least one person who was a member of the household since Jan. 1, 2000 left to live in an international destination and has remained abroad;
2. Households with an internal migrant: at least one person who was a member of the household since Jan. 1, 2000 left to live elsewhere in Nigeria (outside the sample LGA) and has not returned to the LGA; and
3. Households with no migrant: No member of the household has left to live elsewhere either within or outside the country since Jan. 1, 2000.

The selection of states to be included in the sample from both strata was based on Probabilities of Selection Proportional to (Estimated) Size or PPES. The population in each stratum was cumulated and systematic sampling was performed, with an interval of 12.16 million for the low stratum (72.95 million divided by 6 States), and 5.59 million for the high stratum (67.04 million divided by 12 States). This yields approximately double the rate of sampling in the high migration stratum, as earlier explained. Using a random start between 0 and 12.16, the following states were sampled in the low stratum: Niger, Bauchi, Yobe, Kano, Katsina, and Zamfara. In the high stratum, states sampled were Abia, Ebonyi, Imo, Akwa Ibom, Delta, Edo, Rivers, Lagos, Ondo, Osun and Oyo. Given its large population size, Lagos fell into the sample twice. The final sample, with LGAs and EAs moving from North to South (i.e. from the low to the high stratum states) is presented in Table 1 below.

The sample was concentrated in the South since that is where it was expected that more households have international migrants. It was expected that the survey would still also be reasonably representative of the whole country and of both internal migrant and non-migrant households through weighting the data. To this effect, field teams were asked to keep careful track at all stages of the numbers of people and households listed compared to the number in the

The total population in Nigeria was estimated at 232.7 million people in 2024, according to the latest census figures and projections from Trading Economics. This dataset provides the latest reported value for - Nigeria Population - plus previous releases, historical high and low, short-term forecast and long-term prediction, economic calendar, survey consensus and news.

Abstract

The primary mission of the 2006 Population and Housing Census (PHC) of Nigeria was to provide data for policy-making, evidence-based planning and good governance. The Government at all tiers, researchers, the academia, civil society organizations and the international agencies will find the sets of socio-demographic data useful in formulating developmental policies and planning. The 2006 data will certainly provide benchmarks for monitoring the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Enumeration in the 2006 PHC was conducted between March 21st and 27th 2006. It was designed to collect information on the quality of the population and housing, under the following broad categories: demographic and social, education, disability, household composition, economic activity, migration, housing and amenities, mortality and fertility. The results of the exercise are being released as per the Commission's Tabulation Plan which began with the release of the total enumerated persons by administrative areas in the country in the Official Gazette of the Federal Republic of Nigeria No.2, Vol 96 of February 2,2009 and followed with the release of Priority Tables that provide some detailed characteristics of the population of Nigeria by State and LGA.

Geographic coverage

National

Analysis unit

Individuals Households

Kind of data

Census/enumeration data [cen]

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Cleaning operations

Census 2006 Processing: The Technology and Methodology:-

Unlike the data capture method used for the country’s previous censuses, where information from the census forms are typed into the computer system, data capture for census 2006 was carried out by OMR/OCR/ICR systems where questionnaires are scanned through high speed optical scanners. The choice of the scanning system was because it is faster and more accurate than the data keying method.

OMR/OCR/ICR Technology

Definition of terms

• OMR (Optical Mark Recognition) - This means the ability of the scanning machine to detect pencil marks made on the questionnaires by the Enumerators in accordance with the responses given by the respondents.
• OCR (Optical Character Recognition) - This means the ability of the scanning machine to recognize machine printed characters on the questionnaires.
• ICR (Intelligent Character Recognition) - This means the ability of the scanner to recognize characters hand written by the Enumerators in accordance with the responses given by the respondents.

Processing Procedures of Census 2006 at the DPCs:- Data processing took place in the Commission’s seven (7) Data Processing Centres located in different geographical zones in the country. There was absolute uniformity in the processing procedures in the seven DPCs.

(a) Questionnaire Retrieval/Archiving Questionnaires from the fields were taken directly from the Local Government Areas to designated DPCs. The forms on arrival at the DPCs were counted, archived and labeled. Retrieval of the questionnaires at the DPCs were carried out based on the EA frame received from the Cartography Department. Necessary Transmittal Forms are completed on receipt of the Forms at the DPCs. The Transmittal Forms are also used to keep track of questionnaires movement within the DPC.

(b) Forms Preparation The scanning machine has been designed to handle A4 size paper. And the Census form being twice that size has to be split into two through the dotted lines at the middle of the form. This forms preparation procedure is to get the questionnaires, for each Enumeration Areas (EAs), ready for scanning. There is a Batch Header to identify each batch.

(c) Scanning Each Batch on getting to the Scanning Room was placed on joggers (a vibrating machine)to properly align the forms, and get rid of dust or particles that might be on the forms.

The forms are thereafter fed into the scanner. There were security codes in form of bar codes on each questionnaire to identify its genuineness. There was electronic editing and coding for badly coded or poorly shaded questionnaires by the Data Editors. Torn, stained or mutilated forms are rejected by the scanner. These categories of forms were later manually keyed into the system.

Re-archiving of Scanned Forms:- Scanned forms were placed in their appropriate marked envelopes in batches, and thereafter returned to the Archiving Section for re-archiving.

Data Output from the Scanning Machine:- The OMR/OCR Software interprets the output from the scanner and translates it into an XML file from where it is further translated into the desired ASCII output that is compatible for use by the CSPro Package for further processing and tabulation.

Data back-up and transfer:- After being sure that the data are edited for each EA batch in an LGA, data then was exported to the SAN (Storage Area Network) of the Server. Two copies of images of the questionnaires for each EA copied to the LTO tapes as backup and then transferred to the Headquarters. The ASCII data files for each LGA are zipped and encrypted, and thereafter transfer to the Data Validation Unit (DVU) at the Headquarters in Abuja.

Data appraisal

Data collation and validation:- The Data Validation Unit at the Headquarters was responsible for collating these data into EAs, LGAs, States and National levels. The data are edited/validated for consistency errors and invalid entries. The Census and Survey Processing (CSPro) software is used for this process. The edited, and error free data are thereafter processed into desired tables.

Activities of the Data Validation unit (DVU):-

Decryption of each LGA Data File Concatenation/merging of Data Files Check each EA batch file for EA completeness within an LGA and State Check for File/Data Structure Check for Range and Invalid Data items Check for Blank and empty questionnaire Check for inter and intra record consistency Check for Skip Patterns Perform Data Validation and Imputation Generate Statistics Report of each function/activity Generate Statistical Tables on LGA, State and National levels.

Nigeria is the African country with the largest population, counting over 230 million people. As of 2024, the largest city in Nigeria was Lagos, which is also the largest city in sub-Saharan Africa in terms of population size. The city counts more than nine million inhabitants, whereas Kano, the second most populous city, registers around 3.6 million inhabitants. Lagos is the main financial, cultural, and educational center in the country. Where Africa’s urban population is booming The metropolitan area of Lagos is also among the largest urban agglomerations in the world. Besides Lagos, another most populated citiy in Africa is Cairo, in Egypt. However, Africa’s urban population is booming in other relatively smaller cities. For instance, the population of Bujumbura, in Burundi, could grow by 123 percent between 2020 and 2035, making it the fastest growing city in Africa and likely in the world. Similarly, Zinder, in Niger, could reach over one million inhabitants by 2035, the second fastest growing city. Demographic urban shift More than half of the world’s population lives in urban areas. In the next decades, this will increase, especially in Africa and Asia. In 2020, over 80 percent of the population in Northern America was living in urban areas, the highest share in the world. In Africa, the degree of urbanization was about 40 percent, the lowest among all continents. Meeting the needs of a fast-growing population can be a challenge, especially in low-income countries. Therefore, there will be a growing necessity to implement policies to sustainably improve people’s lives in rural and urban areas.

Nigerian Population by States

Population, total in Nigeria was reported at 232679478 in 2024, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. Nigeria - Population, total - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on September of 2025.

Nigerian Population by States

Data for the Population distribution of Nigeria is available.Contact nigeriatech@sambusgeospatial.com to request the data.You would get a feedback once your request is received.Link for purchase: https://store.sambusgeospatial.com/product/population-data-across-states-and-lga-in-nigeria/?currency=USD

This feature contain two layers, 1 depicts the up-to-date COVID-19 cases for Nigeria by states and the 2 shows population density of Nigeria by LGAs. These were superimposed on each other for easy comparison. Data sources include NCDC, WHO, and Africa Geoportal. The COVID-19 data is updated at least once per day, following NCDC update timeline. This layer is specifically designed for a COVID-19 monitoring dashboard found here. This layer is created and maintained by DR. NKEKI F. N. and his team (Eugene .A. Atakpiri and Akinde .N. Kolawole) to Support NCDC to fight against the spread of COVID-19 in Nigeria. This layer is opened to the public and free to share. Contact Info: Phone: +23408063131159Email: nkekifndidi@gmail.com Phone: +2348117643525

Email: nkekifndidi@gmail.com Phone: +2348117643525

Email: nkekifndidi@gmail.com

Phone: +2348117643525

Email: nkekifndidi@gmail.com

Rural population (% of total population) in Nigeria was reported at 44.97 % in 2024, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. Nigeria - Rural population - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on July of 2025.

National Population Estimates. This Dataset contains GRID3 Nigerian Population Estimates version 1.2 at the Country, State and LGA's level

Datacard: Nigeria Population and Projections (2006-2016)

  Dataset Description

This collection consists of three cleaned datasets detailing Nigeria's population statistics from 2006 to 2016. The data is broken down by state and includes population projections, age group distributions, and sex ratios.

  Source

Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS)

  Cleaned Datasets





  1. population_projection.csv

Description: Contains the base population in 2006 and… See the full description on the dataset page: https://huggingface.co/datasets/electricsheepafrica/Nigeria-Population-and-Projections-by-state-2006-2016.

Nigeria State Boundaries provides a 2023 boundary with a total population count. The layer is designed to be used for mapping and analysis. It can be enriched with additional attributes using data enrichment tools in ArcGIS Online.The 2023 boundaries are provided by Michael Bauer Research GmbH. They are sourced from GRID3 Nigeria. These were published in October 2023. A new layer will be published in 12-18 months. Other administrative boundaries for this country are also available: Country LocalGovernmentArea

This app offers an interactive legend allowing users a more holistic experience with the 2016 Nigeria Population Density Map. In this app, unlike the web map, users can interact with the legend. By clicking on categories defined in the legend, they can focus on particular categories/ranges that are more relevant to them.

In 2022, Nigeria's population was estimated at around *** million individuals. Demographic projections show that the Nigerian population might experience a constant increase in the next decades. By 2050, it is forecast that the population will grow to over *** million people compared to 2022.

nigeria - Population Growth for Nigeria was 2.09839 % Chg. at Annual Rate in January of 2023, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, nigeria - Population Growth for Nigeria reached a record high of 2.09839 in January of 2023 and a record low of 2.09282 in January of 2022. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for nigeria - Population Growth for Nigeria - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on September of 2025.