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 1940s Clear ×
Tony Allen (musician)
1940 - 2020
Buchi Emecheta
1944 - 2017
Nojim Maiyegun
Born 1944
Tunde Kelani
Born 1948
Molara Ogundipe
1940 - 2019
Bode George
Born 1945
Nike Akande
Born 1944
Taiwo Ajai-Lycett
Born 1941
Segun Bucknor
1946 - 2017
Razaq Okoya
Born 1940
Gilbert Chagoury
Born 1946
Gbolahan Mudasiru
1945 - 2003
Patrick Koshoni
1943 - 2020
George Aghedo
1940 - 1996
Funsho Williams
1948 - 2006
Gideon Njoku
1947 - 2011
Rilwan Akiolu
Born 1943
Jonathan Dele
Born 1946
Musiliu Smith
Born 1944
Kudirat Kekere-Ekun
Born 1948
Clement Obojememe
Born 1945