Demography And Unemployment In Nigeria: A Geographical Perspective

Abstract

Basically, everything is connected to demography. This study investigates the impact of demography on the prevailing unemployment situation in Nigeria with the specific objectives being to: identify the causes of changing demography in Nigeria, highlight the causes of unemployment in Nigeria, underscore rural-urban differentials in unemployment rate, discuss the impact of unemployment on the economy, highlight the role of government in tackling rapid population growth and unemployment issues in Nigeria, and  to make recommendations based on the findings. Data were sourced mainly from secondary sources and the research adopted the Marxist theory of unemployment as the theoretical framework. To achieve a systematic assessment of the Impact of demography on unemployment in Nigeria, the research method of content   analysis was employed. The study identified the causes of demographic change to include, high fertility rate, increasing rural –urban migration cum urbanization, and the causes of unemployment to include Nigerian  educational structure which lays less emphasis on technical and vocational education, declining economic growth rate, unsuitable economic policies,   neglect of  agriculture and corruption among others. The study also found that changing demography and the consequent unemployment rate has a geographic dimension, deferring substantially between the rural and the urban segment of the country. The study recommended among others, a more effective and stricter implementations of population policies to reduce population growth rate and also rural development programs that will help reduce the population pressure and unemployment burden in both urban and rural areas.