DEMOGRAPHY NIGER DELTA

The Niger Delta is a large area in southern Nigeria. The Niger Delta has six provinces with a total of 46 million people. The provinces are Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta, Akwa Ibom, Edo and Cross River

Most of the settlements in de delta area are rural, its is that because of physical conditions of the state, the limited land area for agricultural practices and constant floods. The population is concentrated in a few towns and the states headquarters. The low density of population is due to the limited dry and safe land area for settlement and agricultural practices. Urbanisation is very low due to the fact that the environment makes it impossible to build access roads to link other settlements and thus constrain human economic activities and land use. Almost all the rural settlements are floating hamlets i.e. built on mangrove swamps and thus constantly threatened by floods. On the whole, small villages and hamlets predominate in the states and this characteristic poses problems for economic development since urban centers are needed to provide propulsive growth to the neighbouring regions. The vast majority of the people live in rural settlements. The emergence of mitigation to new settlements in the area may not be unconnected with the tempo of activities resulting from the oil exploration and exploitation in the state. The nature of oil exploration and exploitation is that it leads to the creation of squatter settlements for the workers of oil companies and oil services companies. Most of the large urban centers are located in the oil producing southern part of the state.

The ethnic composition of the delta area is very diverse, they are very rich in culture, arts, music, dances and masquerades.

As seen in the map, most of the population is living next to a river or inbetween two rivers. Also a lot of people are living next to the sea. These places are good for trading.