There is a large volume of internal migration in the country induced by scarcity of land, impoverished soil, declining crop yields, poor harvests and soilf erosion, among others. The acquisition of some level of education or skill is also an important factor that prompts migration. Internal migration takes different fomis and patterns, but the most sig nificant is the movement from rural areas to urban centres. Rural-urban migration is responsible for the depopulation of some rural area's and the influx of people into towns and cities.

In the face of biting economic crunch and polit ical uncertainty, Nigeria has also, in the last one decade or so, witnessed increased level of emigra tion. This is responsible for the rather worrisome phenomenon of "brain-drain" for which the country

has come to be associated with. International migration, particularly in the West African region, has also become intensified in the context of the emerging Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

The rapid rate of increase in the population of large urban centres through migration has been of great concern to successive governments in the country since the second half of the 1950s.

The urban centres of Lagos, Port Harcourt, Warri, Jos, Kaduna and Kano have grown very fast. Abuja, the Federal Capital City and some of the new State capitals have also. experienced phenomenal growth as aresult of migration. Rapid urban growth has resulted in problems of urban congestion or over crowding, poor housing, poor environmental sanita tion, unemployment, crimes and other social vices which have come to characterise Nigeria's large urban centres.

According to the 1991 census figures, Nigeria was then about 36 per cent urban; the country can thus be said to be still a predominantly rural society with over 60 percent of its total popu- lation living in small, remote, rural communities,

The western part of the country, inhabited by the Yoruba who have established the cultural tradition of living in large population concentrations, is more urbanised than other parts of the country. However, their large cities such as lbadan, Oshogbo, Ondo, Abeokuta and llorin are largely traditional and pre industrial in features with, at best, a mixture of the modern and the old.

The country is, however, faced with the paradox of being one of the least urbanised world regions, yet experiencing the phenomenon of over-urbanisation. This is so because urban growth is not in response to industrialisation; hence, there is a high level of unemployment/underemployment, low productivity, a rather bloated tertiary or service sector and marginalisation of the labour force in the towns and cities

• Size and Growth Rate
• Age And Sex Composition
• Spatial Distribution
• Migration And Urbanization
• Other Features Of the Population