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.
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 songwriter — 7.5× the global rate.
Lagos under-produces politician — only 0.3× the global rate.
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.
- Sports
- Politics & Law
- Film & TV
- Music
- Art & Design
- Writing
- Other
- Filtered to 1930s Clear ×
Anthony Olubunmi Okogie
Born 1936
Akin Euba
1935 - 2020
Ernest Shonekan
Born 1936
Ayo Bankole
1935 - 1976
David Aradeon
Born 1933
Solomon Ilori
Born 1935
Anwar M. El-Khalil
Born 1938
Mobolaji Johnson
1936 - 2019
Abdul Karim Amu
1933 - 2010
Antonio Deinde Fernandez
1936 - 2015
Yusuf Grillo
Born 1934
Sydney Onayemi
1937 - 2016
Smart Akraka
1934 - 2016
Adekunle Lawal
1934 - 1980
Albert Onyeawuna
1935 - 2014
Molade Okoya-Thomas
1935 - 2015
Aleida Schweitzer
Born 1938
Adetokunbo Lucas
Born 1931
João Galaz
Born 1931