Nigeria: Primary education, pupils (% female)

Key figures

What the numbers say

On record, the biggest yearly rise was 2.58 percentage points in 1989 and the biggest yearly fall was 1.97 percentage points in 1988. The numbers show how large and when, not why; for the cause, look at what happened in that country in those years.

From 2007 to 2016 the straight-line trend is upward, about 0.28 percentage points a year. A straight line explains 65% of the movement over 9 observed years.

Worked out from the yearly values above. How the checks work: standard deviation, z-scores and straight-line trends.

How it compares

In 2016, Nigeria had the 9th highest value of the 13 economies reporting that year. Higher is not always better: for some indicators the lowest value is the one to aim for. See the full ranking.

Closest to Nigeria in the 2016 ranking

• Dominica — 5th of 13: 48.41%
• Fiji — 6th of 13: 48.17%
• Paraguay — 7th of 13: 48.16%
• Papua New Guinea — 9th of 13: 46.16%
• Yemen, Rep. — 10th of 13: 45.6%
• Guinea — 11th of 13: 44.67%

What this measures

Female pupils as a percentage of total pupils at primary level include enrollments in public and private schools.

Limitations: The percentage of female enrollment is limited in assessing gender parity, because it's affected by the gender composition of population. Ratio of female to male in enrollment rate provides a population adjusted measure of gender parity.

Regional and income-group figures are computed by the World Bank as a weighted average.

All 42 values

Primary education, pupils (% female) in nearby economies

• Angola — 46.86% (2015)
• Benin — 47.67% (2018)
• Botswana — 48.86% (2015)
• Burkina Faso — 48.72% (2018)
• Burundi — 50.12% (2018)
• Cabo Verde — 47.8% (2018)
• Cameroon — 47.01% (2018)
• Central African Republic — 43.61% (2016)
• Chad — 43.36% (2016)
• Comoros — 49.08% (2018)
• Congo, Dem. Rep.

More education data for Nigeria

• Primary school starting age (years) — 6 (2025)
• Primary education, duration (years) — 6 (2025)
• Lower secondary school starting age (years) — 12 (2025)
• Secondary education, duration (years) — 6 (2025)
• Primary education, pupils — 33.42 million (2023)
• School enrollment, primary (% gross) — 89.59% (2023)
• School enrollment, primary, female (% gross) — 88.2% (2023)
• School enrollment, primary, male (% gross) — 90.93% (2023)
• School enrollment, primary (gross), gender parity index (GPI) — 1.01 (2019)
• Primary education, teachers

Reading data like this

• Where to find free public data, and how to check it before you trust it — 2 min read
• Data analysis examples: 6 worked from one dataset — 3 min read
• Real change or random noise? A plain guide to reading your numbers — 2 min read

Questions people ask

What is Nigeria's primary education, pupils (% female)?

47.5% in 2016, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1970?

It is up 10.53 percentage points from 36.96% in 1970. The highest value was 48.62% in 2014 and the lowest 36.96% in 1970.

How does Nigeria rank?

9th highest of 13 economies with data for 2016.

Where does this data come from?

The World Bank's World Development Indicators, licensed CC BY 4.0. Original source: Stat Bulk Data Download Service, UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), uri: https://uis.unesco.org/bdds, publisher: UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS).

Source

World Bank, World Development Indicators, indicator SE.PRM.ENRL.FE.ZS, licensed CC BY 4.0. Original source: Stat Bulk Data Download Service, UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), uri: https://uis.unesco.org/bdds, publisher: UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) Figures are fetched from the World Bank API and refreshed monthly; see the series on data.worldbank.org. The full definition and method are in the World Bank's metadata glossary. Comparisons use the same World Bank release.

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