The National Population Commission (NPC) has estimated the current population of people resident in Nigeria to be 167 million.
The Director-General of the NPC, Mr. Jamin Zubema made this known in an interview with Punch Newspaper, adding that the growth rate of the nation’s population is 2.3 per cent per annum.
According to the NPC boss, the estimate is based on a reference of the last two censuses conducted in 1991 and 2006.
“You know the inter-census growth rate is established between the two censuses: 1991 and 2006 and it stands at 2.3 per cent per annum” he said.
“If asked about the present population of Nigeria, you have to give a population with a reference date. And that is why we are using 2006” he explained.
Giving a break-down of the nation’s birth and death rates, Mr Zubema stated that “the birth rate as established in the Demographic and Health Survey is 40 per 1000 now, while death rate is 16 per 1000.”
Defending the population estimate, Zubema noted that such projections can be done accurately over a hundred years, even without the head-count. “Projections are things you can do even beyond 2016. So, if you have a growth rate and you have a base population, you can even calculate for the next 100 years.”
He however noted that the projections are crude because “you cannot be exact, that is crude measure because if you take the number of people that die in one year and divide it by the population, and it will be approximately 16 persons by 1000” he said.
“There are not the exact records about birth rates, death rates and the population of Nigeria. I will have to do some calculations to get projections.”
The NPC boss was however, not specific on the projections for the next national census in 2016, saying “we are just at the initial stage and we are drawing a strategy document for implementation and then we will go into the proper work.”
“It is too early to talk about the money needed for the exercise; by the time we draw our strategy document you will get an exact answer” he concluded.