Countries
Key facts
- Capital
- Abuja
- Region
- Africa, Western Africa
- Population
- 237,527,782 (2025)
- Area
- 923,768 km²
- Currency
- Nigerian naira (NGN)
- Languages
- English, Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, Fulah
- Calling code
- +234
- Internet domain
- .ng
- ISO codes
- NG, NGA, 566
- Time zone
- UTC+1:00
- United Nations
- Member state
- Postal code pattern
- ###### (# = digit, @ = letter)
Land and position
Nigeria covers about 923,768 square kilometres. By area it ranks 33rd among the 250 countries and territories on this site. It is a little smaller than Tanzania and a little larger than Venezuela. It shares a land border with 4 neighbours: Benin, Cameroon, Niger, Chad. Its centre lies at about 10° north, 8° east, in the northern hemisphere.
Neighbours
People
About 238 million people live in Nigeria (World Bank, 2025). That makes it the 6th most populous of the 246 places on this site with a figure, with about 2.9 percent of the world's people. On average there are 257 people to each square kilometre. About 64 percent of people live in towns and cities (World Bank, 2025). A baby born there can expect to live about 55 years (World Bank, 2024). Languages listed for it: English, Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, Fulah. A person from Nigeria is called Nigerian.
Money and economy
The currency is the Nigerian naira (code NGN, symbol ₦). The World Bank puts the size of its economy (GDP) at about US$ 291 billion (2025), which is about US$ 1,224 for each person (2025).
Time
Nigeria uses one time zone, UTC+1:00 (Africa/Lagos). Clocks stay the same all year: there is no daylight saving time.
Time now: loading
Offsets are for January 2026. See Time Zones for a converter.
Largest cities
| City | People |
|---|---|
| Lagos | 15,388,000 |
| Kano | 4,910,000 |
| Ibadan | 3,649,000 |
| Abuja | 2,690,000 |
| Port Harcourt | 2,120,000 |
| Kaduna | 1,850,000 |
City figures are from GeoNames and count the city itself, not the wider urban area. They can be some years old, so use them to see the order of size.
More in Western Africa
Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia. See the whole region.
Figures were collected on 11 November 2026 from the World Bank, GeoNames and the open countries data set. See About and data sources. Borders and names follow those sources and do not express any view on disputed territory.