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
Writer13
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Showing 13 of 795 notable people

0009 WRITER

Buchi Emecheta

1944 - 2017

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0015 WRITER

Simon Scarrow

Born 1962

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0041 WRITER

Sefi Atta

Born 1964

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0132 WRITER

Chibundu Onuzo

Born 1991

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0275 WRITER

Chet Anekwe

-

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0303 WRITER

David Olusoga

Born 1970

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0315 WRITER

Dotun Adebayo

Born 1960

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0482 WRITER

Jude Idada

-

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0505 WRITER

Kofoworola Ademola

1913 - 2002

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0625 WRITER

Ahmed Yerima

Born 1957

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0722 WRITER

Adetoun Kueppers-Adebisi

Born 1969

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0724 WRITER

Jumoke Verissimo

Born 1979

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0748 WRITER

Chef Stone

Born 1984

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