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
- Field: Writer Clear ×
Buchi Emecheta
1944 - 2017
Simon Scarrow
Born 1962
Sefi Atta
Born 1964
Chibundu Onuzo
Born 1991
Chet Anekwe
-
David Olusoga
Born 1970
Dotun Adebayo
Born 1960
Jude Idada
-
Kofoworola Ademola
1913 - 2002
Ahmed Yerima
Born 1957
Adetoun Kueppers-Adebisi
Born 1969
Jumoke Verissimo
Born 1979
Chef Stone
Born 1984