A Nigerian comedian and the Chief Executive Officer of Sirbalo Homes, Obotuke Timothy, has claimed in a video that Lagos state in Nigeria has a bigger population than Canada. A social media influencer, Tunde Ednut, shared the video on his verified Instagram handle.
In the viral video, Timothy, who has over two million followers on Instagram, called on Africans to be united and improve the state of things within the continent. This was as he shared his exciting experience at the boundary between the United States of America and Canada. He lamented the cost of flight from Nigeria to Ghana, highlighting the challenges Africans face in navigating neighbouring countries within the African continent.
While advocating for a visa-free policy in Africa, Timothy said, “Let’s come together and unite. Please, I am begging the whole of Africa. It doesn’t cost anything, let our leaders come together. We have more natural resources than them. The whole population of Canada is not more than 40-42 million. Lagos state has a larger population than Canada.”
Claim: Lagos state is bigger than Canada in population
Verification
To verify the claim, we checked for credible sources to confirm the population figures of Lagos state and Canada, and here is what we found.
The population of Canada:
Statistics Canada puts the population of Canada at over 41 million as of the first quarter of 2024. Another live data platform, Worldometers, quotes 39.1 million as of July 4, 2024.
The population of Lagos:
A report published by Statista puts the number of people in Lagos at about 15.4 million as of 2022. The report projected the population to be 24.4 million by 2035. According to World Population Review, Lagos population stands at 16.5 million. According to Macrotrends, the current metro area population of Lagos in 2024 is 16.5 million, a 3.7% increase from 2023.
Verdict: INACCURATE
Available data show that Canada’s population ranges from 39.1 to over 41 million while Lagos state’s population is around 16.5 million. This shows that Canada’s population is more than double that of Lagos State. Even the highest projections for Lagos’ population by 2035 do not match Canada’s current population figures.
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