Lagos, Nigeria: Africa's Megacity in Full Throttle
Part of Urban Growth and the Global Urban World — GCSE Geography
This deep dive covers Lagos, Nigeria: Africa's Megacity in Full Throttle within Urban Growth and the Global Urban World for GCSE Geography. Revise Urban Growth and the Global Urban World in Urban Issues and Challenges for GCSE Geography with 15 exam-style questions and 22 flashcards. This topic shows up very often in GCSE exams, so students should be able to explain it clearly, not just recognise the term. It is section 4 of 14 in this topic. Use this deep dive to connect the idea to the wider topic before moving on to questions and flashcards.
Topic position
Section 4 of 14
Practice
15 questions
Recall
22 flashcards
🌍 Lagos, Nigeria: Africa's Megacity in Full Throttle
If you want to understand what rapid urbanisation looks like in reality — the chaos, the opportunity, the inequality, the ingenuity, the sheer overwhelming scale of it — Lagos is the place to look. There is no city on Earth quite like it.
Lagos sits on the south-west coast of Nigeria, on a peninsula and network of islands jutting into the Atlantic Ocean along the Gulf of Guinea. At independence in 1960, the city had around 760,000 people. Today, official figures put the population at around 15 million, but unofficial estimates — accounting for the millions living in informal settlements who are never counted — reach 21 million or more. Lagos is almost certainly the largest city in Africa, and one of the fastest-growing cities anywhere on Earth.
The city is Nigeria's economic capital (the political capital is Abuja, 500 km to the north), its main port, and its cultural heartland. Nigeria is Africa's most populous country with over 220 million people, and Africa's largest economy by GDP. Lagos is the engine of all of that.
Why Lagos Grew So Fast — The Causes of Its Growth
Lagos's extraordinary growth is the product of several converging forces, all acting simultaneously:
Quick Check: Explain two reasons why Lagos has grown so rapidly since 1950.
1. Rural-to-urban migration — push factors such as drought, desertification and agricultural job losses in northern Nigeria have driven millions southward to Lagos, where pull factors including employment in Nigeria's largest economy, the port, the financial sector, and perceived better services attract migrants. 2. Natural increase — Nigeria has one of the world's highest birth rates (~38–40 per 1,000), meaning the existing urban population grows rapidly from within, independently of migration. Both forces have acted simultaneously. Lagos grew from approximately 300,000 in 1950 to an estimated 15–21 million today — a 70-fold increase in 70 years.