Religious Demographic Profile
Nigeria
According to the most recent Nigerian Demographic and Health Survey,1 which presents statistics for a nationally representative sample of women between the ages of 15 and 49 and men between 15 and 59, 50.5% of the population is Muslim and 48.2% is Christian. Only 1.4% is associated with other religions. Religious adherence rates for women and men are nearly identical; 50.7% of women and 50.2% of men identify as Muslim, while 47.9% of women and 48.5% of men identify as Christian. It should be noted that adherence levels also can differ somewhat by age.
The 2006 Nigerian Census did not ask questions about religion because the proportion of Muslims and Christians is a highly sensitive political issue.2 The latest Censuses available with religion questions are from 1953 and 1963.3 In 1953, 45.3% of the population was Muslim, 21.4% was Christian and 33.3% belonged to other religions. By 1963, the percentage of the population that belonged to other religions had declined by 15 percentage points, nearly matching the 13.1 point increase for Christians; during this same time period, the percentage of Muslims increased by less than 2 percentage points. The number of Christians increased by another 13.1 percentage points from 1963 to 1990. This growth trend flattened out by 1990, with the Christian share of the Nigerian population growing by less than 1 percentage point from 1990 to 2003. The Muslim population, however, increased by 3 percentage points during that same time period.
| Religious Affiliation | ||||
| 2003a | 1990a | 1963b | 1953b | |
| Muslim | 50.5% | 47.5 | 47.2 | 45.3 |
| Christian (Total) | 48.2% | 47.6 | 34.5 | 21.4 |
| Catholic | 13.7% | 13.9 | ||
| Protestant | 15.0% | 33.7 | ||
| Other Christian | 19.6% | - - | ||
| Other | 1.4% | 4.8 | 18.3 | 33.3 |
a. Demographic and Health Survey (2003 figures are the average of the results for women and men)
b. National Censuses | ||||
The 2006 Forum survey of adults ages 18 and older was based on a national probability sample of Nigeria's population of approximately 130 million.4 The survey was weighted to reflect the assumed balance of Christians and Muslims in this country.
According to the Forum survey, renewalists - including charismatics and pentecostals - account for approximately three-in-ten Nigerians. Roughly six-in-ten Protestants are either pentecostal or charismatic, and three-in-ten Catholics surveyed can be classified as charismatic.
| Renewalists in Nigeria, Forum 2006 Survey | |||
| Renewalist | Pentecostal | Charismatic | |
| Total Population | 26% | 18 | 8 |
| Catholic | 30% | NA | 30 |
| Protestanta | 62% | 54 | 8 |
a. African Independent Churches (AIC) not included
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Notes
2See 2006 report from the Population Reference Bureau by Robert Lalasz, http://www.prb.org/.
3Archived at the US Census International Data Base (IDB). The 1991 Census figures are considered unreliable due to a possible undercount of the population (Lalasz 2006). Some irregularities are also alleged for the 1963 Census.
4See the introduction to this report for a discussion of survey methodology and definitions.
