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Office of the Press Secretary
(Abuja, Nigeria )
________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release August 26, 2000
FACT SHEET
Nigeria
Nigeria is nearly twice the size of California.
Nigeria, with a population estimated at 110 million, is the most
populous country in Africa and the 10th largest in the world.
One in five sub-Saharan Africans is Nigerian.
There are hundreds of thousands of Nigerians currently in the United
States. Nearly 200,000 are American citizens.
Nigeria is inhabited by over 250 ethnic groups. Muslims make up
about 50 percent of religious adherents, Christians about 40 percent,
while 10 percent follow traditional beliefs.
Nigeria is the world's sixth-largest oil exporter, accounting for 7%
of oil imports to the United States.
There is 1 telephone for every 220 people in Nigeria.
Only 9,000 Nigerians have access to the Internet.
Sixty percent of Nigerians earn less than $1 per day.
The Nigerian Stock Exchange is one of the few stock exchanges in the
world to be run by a woman. The Chairman is Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke.
The life expectancy, at birth, is 56 years in Nigeria compared to 76
years in the United States.
Nigeria's infant mortality rate is 87 deaths per 1,000 live
births-the 15th highest rate in the world.
Nigerian military and uniformed police personnel have participated in
27 peacekeeping missions around the world.
Nigerian author, Wole Soyinka, won the Nobel Prize in Literature in
1986.
Nigerian athletes have won 14 medals in the Olympics-winning 6 at the
1996 Summer Games in Atlanta.