Niger Population

Niger has one of the highest fertility rates in the world, with women having on average around six children, and the youngest population on earth as a result. That gives it one of the steepest growth trajectories of any country, with its population set to multiply several times over this century. Located in the drought-prone Sahel, it faces the hardest version of the question of how to feed and educate a rapidly multiplying young population.

Niger is home to about 28.4 million people in 2026, the 54th largest population of any country. A country of Western Africa, its trajectory to 2100 is governed by how births, deaths and migration play out. Population density stands at about 23 people for every square kilometre of land.

Niger is projected to keep growing until about 2100, when its population peaks at roughly 90.6 million before a gradual decline sets in, leaving it near 90.6 million by 2100. It is projected to pass the 50 million mark around 2049.

Fertility is high, around 5.94 births per woman, the engine of rapid, sustained growth.

Half of Niger is currently younger than about 15, but by 2100 the median age is projected to reach around 34, even as life expectancy improves from about 61 years. For now it remains one of the world's youngest populations, with a large generation about to reach working age. An older population gradually reshapes the labour force, pension systems and healthcare demand.

These figures follow the UN's medium variant, the most widely cited scenario. The low and high variants, driven mainly by differing fertility assumptions, fan out into a wide range by 2100, so treat each number as a central estimate rather than a precise forecast.