Niger facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Republic of the Niger
République du Niger (French)
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 Coat of arms
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Motto:
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Anthem: L'Honneur de la Patrie (French)
"The Honour of the Fatherland" |
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Location of Niger (dark green)
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| Capital and largest city
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Niamey 13°30′49″N 2°06′32″E / 13.51361°N 2.10889°E |
| Official languages | French |
| National languages |
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| Ethnic groups
(2021)
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| Religion
(2012)
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| Demonym(s) | Nigerien |
| Government | Unitary republic under a military junta |
| Abdourahamane Tchiani | |
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• CNSP Vice President
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Salifou Modi |
| Ali Lamine Zeine | |
| Legislature | National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland |
| Independence
from France
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• Republic proclaimed
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18 December 1958 |
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• Declared
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3 August 1960 |
| 26 July 2023 | |
| Area | |
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• Total
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1,267,000 km2 (489,000 sq mi) (21st) |
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• Water (%)
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0.02 |
| Population | |
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• 2024 estimate
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26,342,784 (56th) |
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• Density
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12.1/km2 (31.3/sq mi) |
| GDP (PPP) | 2023 estimate |
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• Total
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 $42.739 billion (144th) |
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• Per capita
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$1,579 (188th) |
| GDP (nominal) | 2023 estimate |
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• Total
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$17.073 billion (145th) |
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• Per capita
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$630 (185th) |
| Gini (2021) | ▼ 32.9 medium |
| HDI (2022) | 0.394 low · 189th |
| Currency | West African CFA franc (XOF) |
| Time zone | UTC+1 (WAT) |
| Driving side | right |
| Calling code | +227 |
| ISO 3166 code | NE |
| Internet TLD | .ne |
Niger is a country in western Africa. The capital is Niamey, and the official language is French. It is surrounded by Algeria and Libya to the north, Chad to the east, Nigeria and Benin to the south, and Burkina Faso and Mali to the west. Niger is landlocked, meaning it has no coastline. Niger gets its name from the Niger River.
The Mali Empire and the Songhai Empire both had land in what is now Niger. Later France controlled the land that is now Niger. Niger has a population, or the number of people living in an area, of 15,306,252 and an area of 1,267,000 square kilometres. Much of Niger is desert.
It was colonized by France during the Scramble for Africa as part of French West Africa, becoming a distinct colony in 1922. Since obtaining independence in 1960, Niger has experienced five coups d'état and four periods of military rule. Niger's seventh and most recent constitution was enacted in 2010, establishing a multiparty, unitary semi-presidential system. Following the most recent coup in 2023, the country is once again under a military junta.
According to the UN's Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) report of 2023, Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world.
Contents
Geography
Niger is a landlocked nation in West Africa located along the border between the Sahara and Sub-Saharan regions. It borders Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, Algeria and Libya to the north and Chad to the east.
Niger lies between latitudes 11° and 24°N, and longitudes 0° and 16°E. Its area is 1,267,000 square kilometres (489,191 sq mi) of which 300 square kilometres (116 sq mi) is water. This makes it less than twice the size of France, and the world's 21st largest country.
Niger borders seven countries and has a total perimeter of 5,697 kilometres (3,540 mi). The longest border is with Nigeria to the south (1,497 km or 930 mi). This is followed by Chad to the east, at 1,175 km (730 mi), Algeria to the north-northwest (956 km or 594 mi), and Mali at 821 km (510 mi). Niger has borders in its further southwest with Burkina Faso at 628 km (390 mi) and Benin at 266 km (165 mi) and to the north-northeast Libya at 354 km (220 mi).
The lowest point in Niger is the Niger River, with an elevation of 200 metres (656 ft). The highest point is Mont Idoukal-n-Taghès in the Aïr Mountains at 2,022 m (6,634 ft).
Niger's terrain is predominantly desert plains and sand dunes, with flat to rolling savanna in the south and hills in the north.
Climate
The hotter and drier climate within desert areas causes more frequent fires in some regions. In the south, there is a tropical climate on the edges of the Niger River basin.
Biodiversity
The territory of Niger contains five terrestrial ecoregions: Sahelian Acacia savanna, West Sudanian savanna, Lake Chad flooded savanna, South Saharan steppe and woodlands, and West Saharan montane xeric woodlands.
The north is covered by deserts and semi-deserts. The typical mammal fauna consists of addax antelopes, scimitar-horned oryx, gazelles, and in the mountains, Barbary sheep. The Aïr and Ténéré National Nature Reserve was founded in the northern parts to protect these species.
The southern parts are naturally dominated savannahs. The W National Park, situated in the bordering area to Burkina Faso and Benin, belongs to "one of the most important areas" for wildlife in Western Africa, which is called the WAP (W–Arli–Pendjari) Complex. It has a population of the West African lion and one of the last populations of the Northwest African cheetah.
Other wildlife includes elephants, buffaloes, roan antelopes, kob antelopes and warthogs. The West African giraffe is found in the further north where it has its last relict population.
Environmental issues include destructive farming practices as a result of population pressure, illegal hunting, bush fires in some areas and human encroachment upon the flood plains of the Niger River for paddy cultivation. Dams constructed on the Niger River in the neighboring countries of Mali and Guinea and within Niger are cited as a reason for a reduction of water flow in the Niger River—which has a direct effect upon the environment. A "lack of adequate staff" to guard wildlife in the parks and reserves is another factor cited for loss of wildlife.
Farmer-managed natural regeneration is practiced since 1983 to increase food and timber production, and resilience to climate extremes.
Governance and politics
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Niger's new constitution was approved on 31 October 2010. It restored the semi-presidential system of government of the 1999 constitution (Fifth Republic) in which the president of the republic, elected by universal suffrage for a five-year term, and a prime minister named by the president share executive power.
Largest cities and towns
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Largest cities or towns in Niger
According to the 2012 Census |
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| Rank | Name | Pop. |
| 1 | Niamey | 978,029 |
| 2 | Maradi | 267,249 |
| 3 | Zinder | 235,605 |
| 4 | Tahoua | 117,826 |
| 5 | Agadez | 110,497 |
| 6 | Arlit | 78,651 |
| 7 | Birni-N'Konni | 63,169 |
| 8 | Dosso | 58,671 |
| 9 | Gaya | 45,465 |
| 10 | Tessaoua | 43,409 |
Economy
The economy of Niger centers on subsistence crops, livestock, and some of the world's largest uranium deposits. Drought cycles, desertification, a 2.9% population growth rate, and the drop in world demand for uranium have undercut the economy.
Society
Demographics
Expanding from a population of 1.7 million in 1960, Niger's population has rapidly increased with a current growth rate of 3.3% (7.1 children per mother).
This growth rate is one of the highest in the world and is a source of concern for the government and international agencies.
A 2005 study stated that over 800,000 people (nearly 8 per cent of the population) in Niger are enslaved.
Ethnic groups
Niger has a wide variety of ethnic groups as in most West African countries. The ethnic makeup of Niger is as follows: Hausa (53.0%), Zarma-Songhai (21.2%), Tuareg (10.4%), Fula (French: Peuls; Fula: Fulɓe) (9.9%), Kanuri Manga (4.4%), Tubu (0.4%), Arab (0.3%), Gourmantche (0.3%), other (0.2%).
Languages
French, inherited from the colonial period, is the official language. It is spoken mainly as a second language by people who have received a formal western education and serves as the administrative language. Niger has been a member of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie since 1970.
Niger has ten official national languages, namely Arabic, Buduma, Fulfulde, Gourmanchéma, Hausa, Kanuri, Zarma & Songhai, Tamasheq, Tassawaq, Tebu. Each is spoken as a first language primarily by the ethnic group with which it is associated.
Culture
Nigerien culture is marked by variation, evidence of the cultural crossroads which French colonialism formed into a unified state from the beginning of the 20th century. What is now Niger was created from four distinct cultural areas in the pre-colonial era: the Zarma dominated Niger River valley in the southwest; the northern periphery of Hausaland, made mostly of those states which had resisted the Sokoto Caliphate, and ranged along the long southern border with Nigeria; the Lake Chad basin and Kaouar in the far east, populated by Kanuri farmers and Toubou pastoralists who had once been part of the Kanem-Bornu Empire; and the Tuareg nomads of the Aïr Mountains and Saharan desert in the vast north.
Each of these communities, along with smaller ethnic groups like the pastoral Wodaabe Fula, brought their own cultural traditions to the new state of Niger. While successive post-independence governments have tried to forge a shared national culture, this has been slow forming, in part because the major Nigerien communities have their own cultural histories, and in part because Nigerien ethnic groups such as the Hausa, Tuareg and Kanuri are but part of larger ethnic communities which cross borders introduced under colonialism.
Until the 1990s, government and politics was inordinately dominated by Niamey and the Zarma people of the surrounding region. At the same time the plurality of the population, in the Hausa borderlands between Birni-N'Konni and Maine-Soroa, have often looked culturally more to Hausaland in Nigeria than Niamey. Between 1996 and 2003, primary school attendance was around 30%, including 36% of males and only 25% of females. Additional education occurs through madrasas.
Festivals and cultural events
Guérewol festival
The Guérewol festival is a traditional Wodaabe cultural event that takes place in Abalak in Tahoua region or In'Gall in Agadez Region. It is an annual traditional courtship ritual practiced by the Wodaabe (Fula) people of Niger. During this ceremony, young men dressed in elaborate ornamentation and made up in traditional face painting gather in lines to dance and sing, vying for the attention of marriageable young women. The Guérewol festival is an internationally attraction and was featured in films and magazines as prominent as the National Geographic.
Cure Salée festival
"La Cure salée" (English: Salt Cure) is a yearly festival of Tuareg and Wodaabe nomads in In'Gall in Agadez Region traditionally to celebrate the end of the rainy season. For three days, the festival features a parade of Tuareg camel riders followed with camel and horse races, songs, dances, and storytelling.
Education
The literacy rate (the amount of the adult population who can read or write) of Niger is among the lowest in the world. In 2005 it was estimated to be only 28.7% (42.9% male and 15.1% female). Primary education in Niger is required for six years. The primary school enrollment and attendance rates are low, particularly for girls. Children are often made to work rather than attend school. This is particularly true during planting or harvest periods.
Related pages
Images for kids
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Rock engraving showing herds of giraffe, ibex, and other animals in the southern Sahara near Tiguidit, Niger
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Map of the Songhai Empire, overlaid over modern boundaries
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The Grand Mosque of Agadez
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Overlooking the town of Zinder and the Sultan's Palace from the French fort (1906). The arrival of the French spelled an end for precolonial states like the Sultanate of Damagaram which carried on only as ceremonial "chiefs" appointed by the colonial government.
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President Hamani Diori and visiting German President Heinrich Lübke greet crowds on a state visit to Niamey, 1969. Diori's single party rule was characterised by "good" relations with the West and a preoccupation with foreign affairs.
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Ali Saibou, President 1987–93, helped oversee the transition from military to civilian rule
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A Tuareg rebel fighter in northern Niger during the Second Tuareg Rebellion, 2008
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A map of Niger
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Niamey at night
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Dolé Market
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Small mosque in Filingue
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See also
In Spanish: Níger para niños
