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Niger People - 2024


SOURCE: 2024 CIA WORLD FACTBOOK

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES  Spanish Simplified Chinese French German Russian Hindi Arabic Portuguese

Population

25,396,840 (2023 est.)

Nationality

noun: Nigerien(s)

adjective: Nigerien

Ethnic groups

Hausa 53.1%, Zarma/Songhai 21.2%, Tuareg 11%, Fulani (Peuhl) 6.5%, Kanuri 5.9%, Gurma 0.8%, Arab 0.4%, Tubu 0.4%, other/unavailable 0.9% (2006 est.)

Languages

Hausa, Zarma, French (official), Fufulde, Tamashek, Kanuri, Gurmancema, Tagdal

note: represents the most-spoken languages; Niger has 10 national languages: Arabic, Buduma, Fulfuldé, Guimancema, Hausa, Kanuri, Sonay-Zarma, Tamajaq, Tassawaq, and Tubu

Religions

Muslim 99.3%, Christian 0.3%, animist 0.2%, none 0.1% (2012 est.)

Demographic profile

Niger has the highest total fertility rate (TFR) of any country in the world, averaging close to 7 children per woman in 2022. A slight decline in fertility over the last few decades has stalled. This leveling off of the high fertility rate is in large part a product of the continued desire for large families. In Niger, the TFR is lower than the desired fertility rate, which makes it unlikely that contraceptive use will increase. The high TFR sustains rapid population growth and a large youth population – almost 70% of the populace is under the age of 25, as of 2020. Gender inequality, including a lack of educational opportunities for women and early marriage and childbirth, also contributes to high population growth.

Because of large family sizes, children are inheriting smaller and smaller parcels of land. The dependence of most Nigeriens on subsistence farming on increasingly small landholdings, coupled with declining rainfall and the resultant shrinkage of arable land, are all preventing food production from keeping up with population growth.

For more than half a century, Niger's lack of economic development has led to steady net outmigration. In the 1960s, Nigeriens mainly migrated to coastal West African countries to work on a seasonal basis. Some headed to Libya and Algeria in the 1970s to work in the booming oil industry until its decline in the 1980s. Since the 1990s, the principal destinations for Nigerien labor migrants have been West African countries, especially Burkina Faso and Cote d’Ivoire, while emigration to Europe and North America has remained modest. During the same period, Niger’s desert trade route town Agadez became a hub for West African and other Sub-Saharan migrants crossing the Sahara to North Africa and sometimes onward to Europe.

More than 60,000 Malian refugees have fled to Niger since violence between Malian government troops and armed rebels began in early 2012. Ongoing attacks by the Boko Haram Islamist insurgency, dating to 2013 in northern Nigeria and February 2015 in southeastern Niger, pushed tens of thousands of Nigerian refugees and Nigerien returnees across the border to Niger and displaced thousands of locals in Niger’s already impoverished Diffa region.

Age structure

0-14 years: 49.7% (male 6,360,952/female 6,261,000)

15-64 years: 47.6% (male 5,896,312/female 6,192,116)

65 years and over: 2.7% (2023 est.) (male 329,421/female 357,039)

2023 population pyramid:

Dependency ratios

total dependency ratio: 105.4

youth dependency ratio: 100.4

elderly dependency ratio: 5

potential support ratio: 20.1 (2021 est.)

Median age

total: 15.1 years (2023 est.)

male: 14.8 years

female: 15.5 years

Population growth rate

3.66% (2023 est.)

Birth rate

46.9 births/1,000 population (2023 est.)

Death rate

9.7 deaths/1,000 population (2023 est.)

Net migration rate

-0.6 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2023 est.)

Population distribution

majority of the populace is located in the southernmost extreme of the country along the border with Nigeria and Benin as shown in this

Urbanization

urban population: 17.1% of total population (2023)

rate of urbanization: 4.72% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)

Major urban areas - population

1.437 million NIAMEY (capital) (2023)

Sex ratio

at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female

0-14 years: 1.02 male(s)/female

15-64 years: 0.95 male(s)/female

65 years and over: 0.92 male(s)/female

total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2023 est.)

Mother's mean age at first birth

18.5 years (2012 est.)

note: data represents median age at first birth among women 20-49

Maternal mortality ratio

441 deaths/100,000 live births (2020 est.)

Infant mortality rate

total: 65.5 deaths/1,000 live births (2023 est.)

male: 70.5 deaths/1,000 live births

female: 60.5 deaths/1,000 live births

Life expectancy at birth

total population: 60.5 years (2023 est.)

male: 58.9 years

female: 62.1 years

Total fertility rate

6.73 children born/woman (2023 est.)

Gross reproduction rate

3.31 (2023 est.)

Contraceptive prevalence rate

11% (2021)

Drinking water source

improved: urban: 95.8% of population

rural: 63.1% of population

total: 68.6% of population

unimproved: urban: 4.2% of population

rural: 36.9% of population

total: 31.4% of population (2020 est.)

Current health expenditure

6.2% of GDP (2020)

Physicians density

0.04 physicians/1,000 population (2020)

Hospital bed density

0.4 beds/1,000 population (2017)

Sanitation facility access

improved: urban: 81.9% of population

rural: 13.5% of population

total: 24.8% of population

unimproved: urban: 18.1% of population

rural: 86.5% of population

total: 75.2% of population (2020 est.)

Major infectious diseases

degree of risk: very high (2023)

food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever

vectorborne diseases: malaria, dengue fever, and sexually transmitted diseases: hepatitis B (2024)

water contact diseases: schistosomiasis

animal contact diseases: rabies

respiratory diseases: meningococcal meningitis

note: on 31 August 2023, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a Travel Alert for polio in Africa; Niger is currently considered a high risk to travelers for circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses (cVDPV); vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV) is a strain of the weakened poliovirus that was initially included in oral polio vaccine (OPV) and that has changed over time and behaves more like the wild or naturally occurring virus; this means it can be spread more easily to people who are unvaccinated against polio and who come in contact with the stool or respiratory secretions, such as from a sneeze, of an “infected” person who received oral polio vaccine; the CDC recommends that before any international travel, anyone unvaccinated, incompletely vaccinated, or with an unknown polio vaccination status should complete the routine polio vaccine series; before travel to any high-risk destination, the CDC recommends that adults who previously completed the full, routine polio vaccine series receive a single, lifetime booster dose of polio vaccine

Obesity - adult prevalence rate

5.5% (2016)

Alcohol consumption per capita

total: 0.11 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)

beer: 0.04 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)

wine: 0.01 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)

spirits: 0.06 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)

other alcohols: 0 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)

Tobacco use

total: 7.4% (2020 est.)

male: 13.7% (2020 est.)

female: 1.1% (2020 est.)

Children under the age of 5 years underweight

34.6% (2022)

Currently married women (ages 15-49)

80.3% (2023 est.)

Education expenditures

3.8% of GDP (2020 est.)

Literacy

definition: age 15 and over can read and write

total population: 37.3%

male: 45.8%

female: 29% (2018)

School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education)

total: 6 years

male: 7 years

female: 6 years (2017)

NOTE: The information regarding Niger on this page is re-published from the 2024 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and other sources. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Niger 2024 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Niger 2024 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.

This page was last modified 04 May 24, Copyright © 2024 ITA all rights reserved.