Nigeria now has a population of 201 million people, according to 2019 State of the World Population report by United Nation Population Fund (UNFPA).
With an average population growth of 2.6% between 2010 and 2019, Nigeria has grown by about 5 million people compared to UNPFA’s report in 2018 which was 195.9 million.
The Africa’s most populous country witnessed a population growth from 54.7 million in 1969 to 105.4 million in 1994 and 201.0 million in 2019.
The UNFPA report released on Monday showed that the age distribution of 15-64 years is the highest population composition in the country with 54% of Nigerians falling between the age range.
Meanwhile, 44% of Nigerians are within the age distribution 0-14 while 32% of the population is between 10 and 24 years and a paltry 3% are 65 and above.
The report by UNFPA also showed that low percentage of those within the 65 and above age distribution is not entirely surprising with the life expectancy of Nigeria at a worrying 55 years old, one of the lowest across the world.
However, there was a slight drop in the fertility rate from 2018’s 5.4 births per woman to 5.3 births per woman. It continues the trend of dropping fertility rate over the years from 6.3 in 1994 to 5.3 in 2019.
