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Where is Niger?
About Niger
The Land
The People
Life and Death
Health, Energy and the Environment
Education and Work
Travel, Communication and the Media

Niger is a vast country in northern Africa.

Niger is a land locked country with no sea borders.

The land is mostly flat, desert plains and sand dunes.

The geographical coordinates for the centre of Niger, also known as lines of latitude and longitude, are:-
Latitude - 16 00N
Longitude - 8 00E

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Check the weather in Niamey now.

This is the time in Niamey now

The Nigerien flag is three equal horizontal stripes of orange at the top, white, and green with a small orange disc in the centre of the white band. The orange band represents the drier northern regions of the Sahara, the white is for purity and innocence and green is for hope and the fertile and productive southern and western areas and the Niger River. The orange disc represents the sun and the sacrifices made by the people.

The capital of Niger is Niamey.

Niger is a semi-presidential republic with a president as head of state and a prime minister as head of the government.

In elections everyone over the age of 18 can vote.

The currency in Niger is the African franc.

French is the official language.

Hear the National Anthem


These are the anthem words

The words ×

These are the words to the Nigerien National Anthem called The Song of Niger. It was adopted in 1961. This is a translation of the words.
If anthem fails to play click here

Throughout great powerful Niger, which makes nature more beautiful,
Let us be proud and grateful of our new freedom!

Let us avoid vain quarrels in order to spare ourselves bloodshed,
And may the glorious voices of our race be free of domination!

Let us rise in a single leap as high as the dazzling sky,
Where stands guard its eternal soul which will make the country greater!

Chorus
Arise! Niger! Arise!
May our fruitful labours
Rejuvenate the heart of this old continent!
And may the song be heard
In the four corners of the Earth
As the cry of a fair and valiant people!

Arise! Niger! Arise!
On the ground and on the wave,
To the sound of the drums
In their growing rhythms
Let us always remain united,
And may each one respond To this noble future
Which tells us: – Go forward!

We have already written our own history of England but are asking schools in Niger to provide us with a detailed history of their own country. Check how here.


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The total land area of Niger is 1,266,700 sq kms which is the 5th largest in Africa.

Niger has lakes, rivers and canals which total 300 sq kms.

Niger has boundaries with 7 countries

• Nigeria 1,608 kms
• Chad 1,196 kms
• Algeria 951 kms
• Mali 838 kms
• Burkina Faso 622 kms
• Libya 342 kms
• Benin 277 kms

Niger has no coastline.

The highest point in Niger is Idoukal-n-Taghes at 2,022 metres.

The pie chart below shows how the land is split between agricultural land (crops and pastures), forests and other, which can be towns, villages, desert or frozen waste called tundra.

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The total population of Niger is 19.87 million people, making it the 25th largest country in Africa by population.

Of this number 9.90 million are females and 9.97 million are males.

A person from Niger is called a Nigerien.

To be a citizen of Niger, one of your parents must be a citizen of Niger. It is not sufficient to be born in Niger. We do not know for how long you have to live in Niger before you can begin to apply for citizenship.

The largest five cities in Niger, by population are:-

• Niamey 774,235 people
• Zinder 191,424
• Maradi 163,487
• Agadez 124,324
• Alaghsas 88,561

For each country we will give you a diagram showing the population density. This is the average number of people for each square kilometre. Each little Owlbut is 1 person and the big yellow rectangle is 1 sq km. After a while you can compare countries and see which ones are the most crowded. Remember it is only an average as more people live closer together in towns and cities than in villages out in the country.



16.4% of the people live in cities or towns.

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The birth rate in Niger is 43.6 births per 1,000 of population

The death rate in Niger is 11.5 deaths per 1,000 people.

Check this against the birth rate. If the death rate is higher than the birth rate then the population will decrease unless immigrants arrive in the country.

There are 75.0 deaths of girls under 1 year per 1,000 of births and 83.7 deaths of boys.

The median age for females is 15.7 and for males is 15.4. The median age is that age which divides the population exactly in half so there are the same number of people above the median age as below it.

The average age of a woman when she has her first child is 18.1.

The elderly dependency ratio is 5.4. This is the number of elderly people (ages 65+) per 100 people of working age (ages 15-64).

The potential support ratio is 18.6. This is the number of working-age people (ages 15-64) per one elderly person (ages 65+). As a population ages, the potential support ratio tends to fall, meaning there are fewer potential workers to support the elderly.

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Niger spends 5.8% of its total income on health care.

There are 0.05 doctors per 1,000 people.

We have no figures for the number of hospital beds per 1,000 people.

5.5% of the population are estimated as obese.

100% of the urban population and 48.6% of the rural population have drinking water that is either piped into their home or they have access to a public tap, a protected borehole, well, spring or protected rainwater collection facility.

37.9% of the urban population and 4.6% of the rural population have access to a flushing toilet that is connected to a sewer, a pit latrine (that is a permanent hole in the ground that is looked after) or a composting toilet.

Niger releases 0.9 million metric tons of carbon dioxide by burning fossil fuels in the process of producing and consuming energy. This puts it as the 39th highest in Africa.

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Niger spends 3.5% of its total income on education.

Children usually start school at age 7 in Niger. Primary education is for six years until age 13 and secondary education must continue till 17 but can go on to 18/19. This may be followed by further education at a university or college.

We are waiting for information about school terms in Niger.

11% of females and 27.3% of males are able to read and write by the age of 15.

0.7% of all people aged between 16 and 24 are not in work. Among females 0.4% are unemployed while with males 0.9% can't find work. (We are uncertain of the validity of these figures)

The total number of people available for work in Niger is 6.50 million.

They work in the following sectors.

• Agriculture includes farming, fishing and forestry work
• Industry includes mining, manufacturing, construction and energy workers
• Services is everything else

0.3% of the workforce are unemployed.

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There are 10 paved airports in Niger, which is the 20th highest number in Africa.


There are no railways in Niger.


There are 18,949 kilometres of roads in Niger, which means Niger is in 27th place for the most kilometres of roads in Africa.

There is 1 major national newspaper in Niger.

There are 8.78 million mobile phone users.

1% of the people have a fixed landline.



805,702 people have access to the internet at home via any device (computer or mobile).

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