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
Activist8
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Showing 8 of 795 notable people

0178 ACTIVIST

Molara Ogundipe

1940 - 2019

Preview
0427 ACTIVIST

Bisi Alimi

Born 1975

Preview
0443 ACTIVIST

Aisha Diori

-

Preview
0536 ACTIVIST

Hilda Adefarasin

Born 1925

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0651 ACTIVIST

Enitan Ransome-Kuti

Born 1964

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0656 ACTIVIST

Florence Ozor

Born 1980

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0664 ACTIVIST

Alimotu Pelewura

1865 - 1951

Preview
0707 ACTIVIST

Sunny Ofehe

Born 1972

Preview