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Nigeria POPULATION
Unavailable
Cattle grazing in the hilly terrain of northern Nigeria
Courtesy Embassy of Nigeria, Washington
Courtesy Embassy of Nigeria, Washington
The size of its population is one of Nigeria's most
significant and distinctive features. With probably more
than 100
million people in 1990--the precise figure is uncertain
because
there has been no accepted census since 1963, although a
census
was scheduled for the fall of 1991--Nigeria's population
is about
twice the size of that of the next largest country in
Africa,
Egypt, which had an estimated mid-1989 population of 52
million.
Nigeria represents about 20 percent of the total
population of
sub-Saharan Africa. The population is unevenly
distributed,
however; a large percentage of the total number live
within
several hundred kilometers of the coast but population is
also
dense along the northern river basin areas such as Kano
and
Sokoto. Population densities, especially in the southwest
near
Lagos and the rich agricultural regions around Enugu and
Owerri,
exceed 400 inhabitants per kilometer (see
table 2,
Appendix).
None of the neighboring states of West or Central Africa
approaches the total level of Nigerian population or the
densities found in the areas of greatest concentration in
Nigeria. Several of Nigeria's twenty-one states have more
people
than a number of other countries in West Africa, and some
of the
Igbo areas of the southeast have the highest rural
densities in
sub-Saharan Africa. In contrast, other areas of Nigeria
are
sparsely populated and have apparently remained so for a
considerable time. This pattern of population distribution
has
major implications for the country's development and has
had
great impact on the nation's postindependence history.
Migration from rural to urban areas has accelerated in
recent
decades. Estimates of urban dwellers reveal this shift--in
1952,
11 percent of the total population was classified as
urban; in
1985, 28 percent. One-sixth of the urban population, or
approximately 6 million people, lived in Lagos, and in
1985 eight
other cities had populations of more than 500,000.
Data as of June 1991
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