Nigeria, a nation of diverse cultures and ethnicities, presents a fascinating case study in religious demographics. The country is home to some of the world's largest Christian and Muslim populations, coexisting within its borders. Understanding the religious distribution and its historical context is crucial for comprehending Nigeria's social and political dynamics.
Map of ethnic groups in Nigeria.
Religious Distribution
Reliable recent statistics are scarce, but Nigeria is roughly divided between 50-55% Muslims, who mostly live in the northern regions, and 35-45% Christians, who mostly live in the southern regions. Indigenous religions, such as those native to the Igbo and Yoruba ethnicities, have been declining for decades and being replaced by Christianity and Islam.
The North, dominated by the Hausa-Fulani and Kanuri ethnic groups, is predominantly Muslim. However, significant Christian communities have resided and intermarried with Muslims in the North for more than 50 years. Both Muslims and Christians reside in large numbers in the Middle Belt, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). In the southwest, where the Yoruba ethnic group predominates, Christians and Muslims reside in equal numbers. While most Yorubas practice either Christianity or Islam, the practice of traditional Yoruba religious beliefs continues. Southern ethnic groups are predominantly Christian. In the east, where the Igbo ethnic group is dominant, Catholics, Anglicans, and Methodists are the majority, although many Igbos continue to observe traditional rites and ceremonies in tandem with Christianity.
It's worth noting the figures in the 2020 edition of The World Christian Encyclopedia, which draw on figures assembled and updated as part of the World Christian Database (WCD). These figures put those who identify as Christians at 46.3%, and Muslims at 46.2 and ‘ethnic religions’ at 7.2%. WCD figures predict that both Muslims and Christians will continue to grow as a proportion of the population through to 2050. Their projections predict Christians at that point will make up on 48% of the population and Muslims at 48.7%, both growing at the expense of ethnic religions, down to 2.9% of the population.
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However, the Pew Forum in a 2010 report compared reports from several sources. In a 2020 projection based on 2010 estimate released by Pew Research Center, the Muslim population was estimated to be 51.1% while the Christian population was estimated to be 46.9% while the remaining 2% was other. A 2022 Afrobarometer survey on religion in Nigeria found that, 54.2% of the respondents identified as Christian and 45.5% identified as Muslim.
In Nigeria, about 52 percent of the population is Muslim. The Muslim population in Nigeria continues to grow.
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Islam in Nigeria
The majority of Nigerian Muslims are either Sunni or non-denominational Muslims. Many Sunni Muslims are members of Sufi brotherhoods or Tariqa. Most Sufis follow the Qadiriyya, Tijaniyyah or Mouride movement. A significant Shia minority also exists (see Shia in Nigeria).
In Nigeria, the most prominent existing Sufi orders are the Tijaniyya and Qadiriyya, and a 2012 Pew Research Center survey showed 37% of Nigerians identify with Sufi orders (19% identified specifically as Tijaniyya and 9% as Qadiriyya). The majority of the Muslim population in Nigeria live in the Northern, South western and Central states.
Islam was introduced to northern and central Nigeria in the Middle Ages as early as the 11th century and was well established in the major capitals of the region by the 16th century, spreading into the countryside and toward the Middle Belt uplands. Shehu Usman dan Fodio established a government in Northern Nigeria based on Islam before the advent of European colonialism.
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The vast majority of Muslims in Nigeria are Sunni belonging to the Maliki school of jurisprudence; however, a sizeable minority also belong to the Shafi’i madhhab. Many Sunni Muslims are members of Sufi brotherhoods. Most Sufis follow the Kadiriyya, Tijaniyya or Mouride movements. Nigerian Islam has become heterogenous with the springing up of many Islamic sects. Some Nigerian Muslims emphasize asceticism and mysticism and form Sufi groups called tariqas, orders, or brotherhoods.
Christianity in Nigeria
Nigeria has the largest Christian population in Africa according to Pew Research Center and it has the sixth largest Christian population in the world although the Christians in Nigeria are roughly about 40%-49.3% of the country's population. According to a 2011 Pew report, over 80 million Nigerians are Christians.
The history of Christianity in Nigeria can be traced back to the 15th century, when the Portuguese were the first Europeans to arrive on the shores of the region via the Atlantic. The Portuguese brought Catholic missionaries with them but failed to successfully plant the seed of Christianity. Most of the Portuguese took Nigerian slaves to be resold in the Americas and parts of Europe.
From the 1990s to the 2000s, there was significant growth in Protestant churches, including the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Living Faith Church (Winners' Chapel), Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) (the first Aladura Movement in Nigeria), Deeper Christian Life Ministry, Evangelical Church Winning All, Mountain of Fire and Miracles, Christ Embassy, Common Wealth of Zion Assembly, Aladura Church (indigenous Christian churches being especially strong in the Yoruba and Igbo areas), and of evangelical churches in general. Also the Watchman Catholic Charismatic Renewal Movement was formed during this period with branches all over Nigeria. These churches have spilled over into adjacent and southern areas of the middle belt.
There are over 300,000 Early Pentecostal Apostolic Churches parishes in Nigeria having about 4.2 million adherents. 1) The Redeemed Church, 4) Deeper Life Church, 5) Overcomers' Ministries and other new springs. The archdioceses of the Catholic Church in Nigeria are: Abuja, Onitsha, Jos, Benin City, Calabar, Ibadan, Lagos, and Owerri. It has about 19 million members in Nigeria in 2005. Cardinal Francis Arinze is a Catholic cardinal from Nigeria. In 2020, the pope appointed a Nigerian professor, Kokunre A.
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Traditional and Other Religions
Alongside the main religious sect are hundreds of traditional spiritualities of various Nigerian ethnic groups. Each of the hundreds of ethnic groups in Nigeria have traditional belief systems, which still have millions of follows throughout the country. Among the Yoruba, the traditional Yoruba belief system, known as Ìṣẹ̀ṣe, revolves around the belief in a Supreme being known as Olodumare, a complex system of divination known as Ifa, as well as deities associated with nature known as orisha. Within the cities and subethnic groups of Yorubaland, traditions differ widely, but all are closely connected with nature, music, and historical roots of various towns.
Hindus number more than 1 million (up 9%), as of 2020. Hinduism spread to Nigeria mainly by immigration of Hindus from India and of Hare Krishna Missionaries. Altogether including Nigerians of Indian origin and NRIs there are 250,000 Hindus in Nigeria. Chrislam is a blend of Christianity and Islam that takes practices from both the Bible and the Quran.
Religious Freedom and Conflict
Nigeria is officially a secular state with no official state religion. Article 10 of the Constitution states that “The Government of the Federation or a State shall not adopt any religion as State Religion.” However, twelve Muslim-majority northern states have incorporated Sharia courts into their legal systems with the power and jurisdiction of these courts waxing and waning over the past two decades. In some of these states, sharia courts are optional arbitration courts for personal status issues whereas, in others, Sharia has effectively replaced the formerly secular state level legal system in both civil and criminal contexts.
Before the British colonization (1884), there were no inter-religious conflicts, Nigeria in its present borders did not exist as a single nation and the Muslim populations of northern Nigeria lived peacefully in mutual tolerance with the local animist and even Christian minorities. While religious conflict is not new in Nigeria's borders, in the 1980s serious outbreaks of violence between Christians and Muslims and between Muslims and the government occurred, mainly in the North. Subsequent decades have seen the problem worsen, and insurgencies and new conflicts arise.
Christians complain of widespread persecution, especially in the north and Middle Belt. Catholic Archbishop Matthew Man-Oso Ndagoso sums up the situation facing Christians in the following way. "For the past 14 years the nation has been grappling with Boko Haram, mostly in the northeast. While we were grappling with that, we had the issue of banditry..."
The rise of these radical movements has been attributed partly to the poor socio economic infrastructures and poor governance in Nigeria. Poverty has been seen as the major catalyst leading to the rapid increase in the membership of these religious extremist groups. The rise of these sects has also been linked to the increase and aiding of religious extremist by politicians for their selfish ambitions.
During the 1980s, religious riots occurred in and around the five cities of Kano in 1980, Kaduna in 1982, Bulum-Ketu in 1982, Jimeta in 1984 and Gombe in 1985. These riots were caused by the migration of the rural poor into urban towns during the dry seasons. An offshoot of Islam called the ‘Yan Tatsine’ violently rebelled against the authorities and non-members. These radical Muslims were inspired by Alhaji Mohammed Marwa Maitatsine. He was a Cameroonian preacher who slammed the government, something which led to his arrest in Nigeria in 1975, yet by 1972 many people followed him across society, ranging from the elite to Koranic students called almajiral or gardawa and unemployed migrants.
Maitatsine and his followers became separate from orthodox Islam, condemning the corruption of the religious and secular elites and the wealthy upper classes’ consumption of Western goods during the petrol boom in 1974-81. The Boko Haram movement has been connected to the Maitatsine movement.
Religious Tolerance and Constitutional Provisions
The national ethics shall be Religious Tolerance. A citizen of Nigeria of a particular religion should not be subjected to disabilities or restrictions to which citizens of Nigeria of other religions are not subjected, nor be accorded any privilege or advantage that is not accorded to citizens of Nigeria of other religions.
The constitution also encourages inter-marriage among persons of different religious backgrounds and promotes the formation of associations that cut across religious lines.
Demographic Trends in Sub-Saharan Africa
To provide context, it is important to consider broader demographic trends in sub-Saharan Africa. Between 2010 and 2020, the population of sub-Saharan Africa grew by 31% to 1.1 billion. As of 2020, most people living in the region are Christians (62%), while Muslims make up about a third of the population.
Sub-Saharan Africans are younger and have a higher fertility rate, on average, than people in any other region, leading to growth among all religious groups except for Jews. Between 2010 and 2020, the number (or count) of Christians grew to 697 million (up 31%), while Muslims increased to 369 million (up 34%). More than 29 million people in the region are religiously unaffiliated (up 10%), and 28 million identify with an “other religion” (up 6%), most commonly animism and other Indigenous traditions.
The share of the population that is Muslim changed the most, growing by roughly 1 percentage point to 33%. Christians increased their share by less than half of a percentage point, to 62%.
Changes in Religious Affiliation (2010-2020)
Across sub-Saharan Africa, the largest substantial change (of at least 5 percentage points) in a religious group’s share of a country’s population occurred in Guinea-Bissau, where the religiously unaffiliated grew to represent 12% in 2020, up 9 percentage points from 2010. Mozambique is the only country in the region (and in the world) in which Christians substantially increased their share of the population, growing to 61% (up 5 points).
Sub-Saharan Africa has the youngest population of any major region of the world. With a median age of 19, young people make up most of the region’s population. Christians tend to be older than Muslims across the region, with median ages of 20 and 17, respectively. People in the “other religions” category also have a median age of about 20.
Christians and Muslims, who together make up 95% of sub-Saharan Africans, are not evenly distributed in the region or even within many countries. Muslim-majority countries are in the north, closer to North Africa and the Middle East, while Christian-majority countries are in the south. This north-south divide appears in some countries, too. In Nigeria, for example, Muslims and Christians make up similar population shares but typically live in the north and south, respectively.
Religious Map of Africa.
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