Spotlight on Nigeria
Nigeria is sub-Saharan Africa’s most populous
country and is home to the region’s largest
Christian population. The West African nation has
more than 80 million Christians, who account for
about half of the country’s total population. There
are more Christians in Nigeria than in any single
nation in traditionally Christian Western Europe.1
In fact, Nigeria’s Christian population is nearly
the same size as the total population of Germany.
Nigeria’s Muslim population is nearly equal to its
Christian population; according to the Pew Forum’s
2011 analysis of the global Muslim population,
there were about 76 million Muslims in Nigeria in
2010.2
Because the proportion of Muslims and Christians
in Nigeria is a sensitive political issue, the
national census has not asked questions about
religion since 1963.3 In 1953, 21.4% of Nigeria’s population was Christian, 45.3% was Muslim and
33.3% belonged to other religions, including African traditional religions. By 1963, the percentage of the
population that belonged to other religions had declined by 15 points, nearly matching the 13.1-point
increase for Christians. During this same period, the percentage of Muslims increased by less than 2
points.4 Christians have since increased in number and share to become about half of the population.
Nigeria’s large Christian community is diverse. It includes nearly 60 million Protestants (broadly defined),
about 20 million Catholics and more than 750,000 other Christians. All of Christianity’s major groups have
grown in Nigeria since the 1970s, but the growth of pentecostal churches has been especially dramatic in
recent decades.5
Footnotes:
1 For the purposes of this report, traditionally Christian Western Europe includes the following countries: Austria,
Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal,
Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. (return to text)
2 Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, The Future of the Global Muslim Population: Projections for
2010-2030, 2011. (return to text)
3 Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, Spirit and Power: A 10-Country Survey of Pentecostals, 2006. (return to text)
4 Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, Spirit and Power: A 10-Country Survey of Pentecostals, 2006,
page 85. (return to text)
5 Allan Anderson, An Introduction to Pentecostalism: Global Charismatic Christianity, Cambridge University Press, 2004,
pages 159-161. (return to text)