An Appraisal of the Conduct and Provisional Figures of the Nigerian Population and Housing Census of 2006

• Activity Number: 542
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Thursday, August 2, 2007 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Government Statistics
• Author(s): Raymond Okafor*+
• Companies: University of Lagos
• Keywords: Nigerian Census of 2006 ; NPC ; Conduct of census ; Provisional figures ; Controversy ; Appraisal

Abstract

This article appraises the conduct and provisional figures of the 2006 Nigerian population and housing census. A summary of the results, released in January, 2007, by the National Population Commission (NPC), is as follows: Nigerian population is about 140 million; populations of males and females are approximately 71.7 and 68.3 million, respectively and annual growth rate of about 3.2%. Most of the census figures are already being hotly contested and even rejected by many individual Nigerians, civil society groups and state governments. We dare say that controversies over census results are not new in Nigeria. Results from this research seem to indicate that current figures are following the same trend. Our findings seem to suggest that (a) a lot more could have been done during the conduct of the census, and (b) the NPC should appraise all complaints and take needed action(s).