“Nigeria’s Missing 50 Million People” by DavidNash

“Nigeria’s Missing 50 Million People” by DavidNash

Summary

  • Nigeria's official population (~220-230 million) may be significantly inflated and could be closer to 170 million
  • This overcount is likely driven by political and financial incentives for states
  • I'm unsure of the implications if this is accurate
    • If states have uniformly inflated populations than the distribution of resources could still be divided evenly
    • Nigeria would still be the biggest country in Africa and companies/governments/NGOs would have similar cost benefit analysis for working and investing there
  • This is a very shallow investigation

Why did I bother looking into this?

The below text sparked an investigation into Nigeria's population claims. It was slightly hidden in the 4th section in one of Yaw's excellent Substack posts.

Yaw went onto explain his reasoning for thinking the population was much lower than current estimates.

Nigeria is a large country with no deep shared history among the different tribes. Due [...]

---

Outline:

(00:04) Summary

(00:49) Why did I bother looking into this?

(03:20) Other Sources

(09:55) Potential Data Sources

(10:05) National Identification Numbers

(11:46) Tech usage

(12:15) Sim Cards

(14:37) UN Population Estimates and Projections

(18:13) Incentives for not caring

(19:08) International Organisations

(19:42) Private Sector

(20:07) Implications

(20:25) International Standing

(20:45) GDP

(21:04) Development Indicators

(21:34) Domestic Politics

(21:53) International Aid

(22:10) Future Research

(22:15) Nigeria

(23:27) Other Countries

The original text contained 9 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

---

First published:
November 22nd, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/824rsHCXuqTmBb8se/nigeria-s-missing-50-million-people

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

---

Images from the article:

Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(250)

“Maybe do the thing you wish CEA would do” by alejoacelas 🔸

“Maybe do the thing you wish CEA would do” by alejoacelas 🔸

I used AI to fix transcription errors, rerrarange the ideas, and suggest tweaks to the title and some sentences. Three of the most exciting projects to come out of EA in recent years are, in a vague s...

8 Jul 4min

“Mabye do the thing you wish CEA would do” by AlejoAcelas🔸

“Mabye do the thing you wish CEA would do” by AlejoAcelas🔸

I used AI to fix transcription errors, rerrarange the ideas, and suggest tweaks to the title and some sentences. Three of the most exciting projects to come out of EA in recent years are, in a vague s...

8 Jul 4min

“Possible mistake EAs are making and shout out to Pause AI UK” by Michelle_Hutchinson

“Possible mistake EAs are making and shout out to Pause AI UK” by Michelle_Hutchinson

I think right now EAs might be making a significant mistake by paying insufficient attention to the political realm. As EAs we tend to figure out what's most impactful for us to work on and focus hard...

29 Jun 6min

“Coming Around To Political Donations” by Jeff Kaufman 🔸

“Coming Around To Political Donations” by Jeff Kaufman 🔸

Five years ago I read a post on the EA Forum arguing that "election campaign contributions might be a way in which you can have a substantial impact as a small donor". It struck me as weird but plausi...

12 Jun 4min

“animal welfare has an evidence problem” by matthes

“animal welfare has an evidence problem” by matthes

Why I stopped donating to animal welfare charities but feel more motivated than ever to redirect money and talent to the cause. I have wanted to write this post for a while. It is an uncomfortable thi...

6 Jun 26min

“After making sure we don’t all die, this should be the first priority” by Yaqi Grover

“After making sure we don’t all die, this should be the first priority” by Yaqi Grover

A new article went viral on Twitter today: Nan Ransohoff's "The Third Wave of American Philanthropy" (link). Worth reading first. Nan is right about the shape of what's coming: hundreds of billions in...

31 Mai 6min

“My disagreements with CEA’s approach to stewarding EA” by hbesceli

“My disagreements with CEA’s approach to stewarding EA” by hbesceli

[Cross posted from my substack] In their EA Forum post last year, CEA described their ‘principles-first approach to stewardship of the EA community’. I'm a big fan of principles-first stewardship in ...

29 Mai 27min

“Donating 80% While It Still Counts” by Jeff Kaufman 🔸

“Donating 80% While It Still Counts” by Jeff Kaufman 🔸

Julia and I had been giving half since 2014, but in 2025 we drew on our savings to donate 81%. It looks to us like we're in a critical window for keeping the introduction of very powerful AI systems f...

27 Mai 11min

Populært innen Samfunn

rss-spartsklubben
giver-og-gjengen-vg
aftenpodden
aftenpodden-usa
konspirasjonspodden
alt-fortalt
rss-nesten-hele-uka-med-lepperod
rss-henlagt-andy-larsgaard
popradet
lydartikler-fra-aftenposten
grenselos
sophie-leser
synnve-og-vanessa
wolfgang-wee-uncut
bokmerket-2
198-land-med-einar-trnquist
rss-dette-ma-aldri-skje-igjen
rss-espen-lee-usensurert
den-politiske-situasjonen
relasjonspodden-med-dora-thorhallsdottir-kjersti-idem