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Africa

Nigeria

Everything you need to know about Nigeria for geography games and satellite imagery — capital, population, time zone, and how to recognise it from above.

Quick facts

Capital
Abuja
Continent
Africa
Population
223 million
Area
923,800 km²
Time zone
WAT (UTC+1)
ISO code
NG

How to spot Nigeria from satellite imagery

Nigeria contains around 230 million people, the largest population on the African continent and one of the largest in the world. It is also one of the more difficult African countries to identify from satellite imagery, because its landscape spans almost every West African biome — from tropical mangrove swamps in the south to the dust-edge of the Sahel in the north — and shares those biomes with neighbouring countries.

That said, Nigeria has a few visual fingerprints that no other African country quite matches: the world-class sprawl of Lagos, the unmistakable fan of the Niger Delta, and a settlement density along certain corridors that you do not see elsewhere on the continent. Here is what to look for.

Read the full satellite guide

Can you find Nigeria from above?

Test your geography skills on a 3D globe and see how often you place this country correctly.