geografia: West Africa

Evidence: 88 • authority: 72

Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of 923,769 square kilometres (356,669 mi2). With a population of more than 242 million, it is the most populous country in Africa, and the world's sixth-most populous country. Nigeria borders Niger in the north, Chad in the northeast, Cameroon in the east, and Benin in the west. Nigeria is a federal republic comprising 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, where its capital, Abuja, is located. The largest city in Nigeria by population is Lagos, one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world and…

Evidence: 41 • authority: 72

West Africa, also known as Western Africa, is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo, as well as Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha (a United Kingdom Overseas Territory). As of 2021, the population of West Africa is estimated at 419 million, and approximately 382 million in 2017, of which 189.7 million were female and 192.3 million male. The region is one of the fastest growing in Africa, both demographically and economically. West Africa is a culturally and dem…

Evidence: 27 • authority: 72

There are over 520 native languages spoken in Nigeria. The two official languages are English (which was the language of Colonial Nigeria) and French (since 1996). The English-based creole Nigerian Pidgin – first used by the colonizing British and African slavers to facilitate the Atlantic slave trade in the late 17th century – has now become the most common lingua franca, spoken by over 60 million people. The most commonly spoken native languages are Hausa (over 63 million when including second-language, or L2, speakers), Yoruba (over 47 million, including L2 speakers), Igbo (over 33 million, including L2 speakers), Fulfulde (18 million), Ibibio (over 10 million, including L2 speakers), Ka…

Evidence: 20 • authority: 72

In world demographics, the world population is the total number of humans currently alive. It was estimated by the United Nations to have exceeded 8 billion (8,000,000,000) on November 15, 2022. It took around 300,000 years of human prehistory and history for the human population to reach a billion and only 218 more years from there to reach 8 billion. As of 2026, the world population is approximately 8.3 billion. However, this figure is only a very rough approximation (see § History). The human population experienced continuous growth following the Great Famine of 1315–1317 and the end of the Black Death in 1350, when it had reached nearly 370 million. The highest global population growth…