25,396,840 (2023 est.)
noun: Nigerien(s)
adjective: Nigerien
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.)
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
Muslim 99.3%, Christian 0.3%, animist 0.2%, none 0.1% (2012 est.)
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.
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: 
total dependency ratio: 105.4
youth dependency ratio: 100.4
elderly dependency ratio: 5
potential support ratio: 20.1 (2021 est.)
total: 15.1 years (2023 est.)
male: 14.8 years
female: 15.5 years
3.66% (2023 est.)
46.9 births/1,000 population (2023 est.)
9.7 deaths/1,000 population (2023 est.)
-0.6 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2023 est.)
majority of the populace is located in the southernmost extreme of the country along the border with Nigeria and Benin as shown in this 
urban population: 17.1% of total population (2023)
rate of urbanization: 4.72% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)
1.437 million NIAMEY (capital) (2023)
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.)
18.5 years (2012 est.)
note: data represents median age at first birth among women 20-49
441 deaths/100,000 live births (2020 est.)
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
total population: 60.5 years (2023 est.)
male: 58.9 years
female: 62.1 years
6.73 children born/woman (2023 est.)
3.31 (2023 est.)
11% (2021)
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.)
6.2% of GDP (2020)
0.04 physicians/1,000 population (2020)
0.4 beds/1,000 population (2017)
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.)
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
5.5% (2016)
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.)
total: 7.4% (2020 est.)
male: 13.7% (2020 est.)
female: 1.1% (2020 est.)
34.6% (2022)
80.3% (2023 est.)
3.8% of GDP (2020 est.)
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 37.3%
male: 45.8%
female: 29% (2018)
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.
