Nigeria

Nigeria is a country in West Africa. It sits along the Gulf of Guinea, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. Nigeria shares borders with Benin, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon. It is the most populous country in Africa, with more than 230 million people. That is more than two-thirds the population of the United States, packed into an area about twice the size of California.

The country is split by two great rivers, the Niger and the Benue. They meet in the middle of the country and flow south to the ocean. Nigeria takes its name from the Niger River. The land changes a lot from north to south. The north is dry savanna and grassland that stretches toward the Sahara Desert. The south is wet, green rainforest. Along the coast, the Niger River spreads out into a huge wetland called the Niger Delta.

Nigeria is home to more than 250 different ethnic groups. Each group has its own language and traditions. The three largest are the Hausa and Fulani in the north, the Yoruba in the southwest, and the Igbo in the southeast. People in Nigeria speak more than 500 languages. English is the official language because Britain ruled Nigeria as a colony from 1914 until 1960.

Religion in Nigeria is split roughly in half. Most people in the north are Muslim. Most people in the south are Christian. Some Nigerians also follow older traditional religions that were practiced long before either faith arrived.

Lagos is the largest city in Nigeria, with more than 15 million people. It sits on the coast and is one of the fastest-growing cities in the world. The capital, however, is Abuja, a planned city built in the middle of the country in the 1980s. The government moved there to be in a more central, neutral spot.

Nigeria has a strong economy built on oil. Huge amounts of crude oil lie under the Niger Delta, and selling it is one of the country's biggest businesses. Drilling has also caused pollution problems in the delta, and many Nigerians argue about how the oil money should be shared.

Nigerian culture reaches people far beyond Africa. Nollywood, the Nigerian film industry, makes more movies each year than Hollywood. Afrobeats, a style of music that blends West African rhythms with pop, has become popular around the world. Writers like Chinua Achebe and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie have readers on every continent.