6.4500° N, 3.4000° E

LAGOS

Most Famous People Born in Lagos, Nigeria

Notable people
795
Peak decade
1980s
Median birth year
1983
Most distinctive
Songwriter 7.5×

A football factory in a city of twenty million. More than two in five of Lagos's notable births play professional football — the highest share of any single profession in any city in the dataset — and most of the rest are basketball players, boxers, activists, and the songwriters of Afrobeats. Almost everyone is born after 1960, and almost everyone leaves at some point to play somewhere else.

Through the Decades

One face per decade — the most globally famous figure born in Lagos during each.

Notable Births by Decade

Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1980s with 252 notable births.

What Lagos Is Known For

Click any row to filter the list of people below.

Football is Lagos's biggest profession — 43% of all notables (343).

Lagos over-indexes on songwriter7.5× the global rate.

Lagos under-produces politician — only 0.3× the global rate.

  1. Football343
  2. Actor48
  3. Basket40
  4. Politician32
  5. Singer24
  6. Lawyer19
  7. Boxer17
  8. Writer13
  1. Songwriter117.5×
  2. Boxer175.4×
  3. Activist84.7×
  4. Basket404.0×
  5. Football3433.9×
  6. Photographer112.9×
  7. Business131.6×
  1. Politician320.3×
  2. Writer130.5×

Profession Mix Over Time

Each band shows a profession family's share of Lagos's notable births by decade. Hover the chart for the breakdown at any decade.

18251850187519001925195019752000
  • Sports
  • Politics & Law
  • Film & TV
  • Music
  • Art & Design
  • Writing
  • Other
All795
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Showing 12 of 795 notable people

0100 JUDGE

Taslim Olawale Elias

1914 - 1991

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0204 PRODUCER

Ambrose Campbell

1919 - 2006

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0286 NURSE

Kofoworola Abeni Pratt

1910 - 1992

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0300 BANDLEADER

Ayinde Bakare

1912 - 1972

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0351 POLITICIAN

Akintola Williams

Born 1919

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0360 MILITAR

Adeyinka Oyekan

1911 - 2003

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0364 GUITAR

Tunde King

1910 - 1980

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0451 PHYSICIAN

Elizabeth Abimbola Awoliyi

1910 - 1971

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0460 LAWYER

Bode Thomas

1918 - 1953

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0505 WRITER

Kofoworola Ademola

1913 - 2002

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0694 LAWYER

Tunji Sowande

1912 - 1996

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0738 BUSINESS

Olatunji Ajisomo Alabi

1915 - 1998

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