Nigeria's population now totals 201m according to latest United Nations Population Fund report

NIGERIA'S population has risen to a staggering 201m according to the latest figures released by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) keeping her as the seventh most populated nation on earth just behind Pakistan.

According to the latest figures, Nigeria's population increased by 5.1m from the 195.9m recorded in October last year. In its 2019 State of the World Population report, UNFPA said that Nigeria's annual growth rate has averaged about 2.6% a year between 2010 to 2019, meaning that by 2050, the country will be the fourth most populated nation behind China, India and the US.

UNFPRA's  report indicates that fertility rates among Nigerian women has dropped from 6.4 in 1969 to 5.3 in 2019, meaning that an average Nigerian woman gives birth to at least five children. It added that the global fertility rate or the average number of births per woman stood at 4.8 in 1969, 2.9 in 1994 and 2.5 in 2019.

In addition, the report further said that contraceptive prevalence rates among Nigerian women aged 15 to 49 is only 19%, adding that decision-making on sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights among these women averaged at 51% between 2007 and 2018. However, the report implies that 49% of Nigerian women still do not have the power to decide on their sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights.

Furthermore, the UN agency estimated that Nigeria’s population has grown from 54.7m in 1969 to 105.4m in 1994 and 201m in 2019. It explained that of this 201m, 44% or 88.44m are between the ages of 0 and 14, while 32% or 64.32m are within the ages of 10 and 24.

“Reproductive rights are still out of reach for too many women, including the more than 200m who want to prevent a pregnancy but cannot access modern contraceptive information and services. Ultimately, almost all of the 4.3bn people of reproductive age around the world today will have had inadequate access to sexual and reproductive health services at some point,” the report added.

In 1969, the world's population totalled 3.6bn, up about 1bn from only 17 years earlier, leading to the establishment of UNFPA. Since its creation, UNFPA has succeeded in reducing fertility rates worldwide by about 50% as in the least developed countries, fertility was about six births per woman in 1969.