By Pascal Ibe
A Facebook page, Igbo History claimed that Nigeria has more English speakers than the UK, and more Muslims than Saudi Arabia and Syria. and more Christian than UK.
Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa with 200 million people. The country has over 250 different ethnic groups and numerous languages.
Nigeria’s main language is English. Christianity and Muslim as the main religions in the country.
Comments on this post showed that many Facebook users who believed that these claims are true, lamented that despite the above claim, Nigeria remains backward in development compared to other countries.
But how true is this claim that Nigeria has more English language speakers than UK and more Muslims and Christians than Saudi Arabia and UK?
First, According to Statistics by Medium.con, Nigeria is placed ahead of the United Kingdom.
According to the stats, over 211,400,708 million persons speak English in Nigeria while United Kingdom has 68,207,116 English speakers.
See Table below 👇
Countries with the most English speakers
| Countries’ | Figures | Position |
| Nigeria | 211,400,708 | 4th |
| United Kingdom | 68,207,116 | 6th |
Verdict
The first claim that Nigeria has more English speakers than UK is True.
On the second claim, there are 57 Muslim countries in the world, according to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation’s (OIC) member list. Among these, 49 countries have a Muslim-majority population. These nations, which span from the vibrant towns of Southeast Asia to the deserts of North Africa, have distinct Muslim-majority civilizations.
They extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific, sharing a wide variety of cultures, languages, and traditions united by their common belief in Islam. Despite having extremely different governmental structures, social customs, and economic contexts, these countries are still bound by a common Islamic history. They have a significant collective impact on geopolitics, history, and culture. In this article, we will look into the List of Muslim countries in the world along with their continent, population, and geography.
A data Website GeeksforGeeks, provided below table which gave the list of countries with the highest number of Muslims along with the population.
In the table, Nigeria ranked fifth among the first ten with 98,558,000 persons
While Saudi Arabia and Syria were listed on the table.
See Table below 👇
| Country | Muslim Population |
| Indonesia | 231,506,000 |
| Pakistan | 212,545,000 |
| India | 200,000,000 |
| Bangladesh | 148,630,000 |
| Nigeria | 98,558,000 |
| Egypt | 94,776,000 |
| Iran | 82,000,000 |
| Turkey | 74,915,000 |
| Algeria | 34,890,000 |
| Morocco | 33,240,000 |
Verdict
This second claim that Nigeria has Muslims than Saudi Arabia and Syria is True.
Checking to find the facts about the third claim that Nigeria has more Christians than the United Kingdom, GeeksforGeeks placed Nigeria above Britain.
Christians comprise the majority of the population in 158 countries and territories, about two-thirds of the world’s countries and territories. Christianity is the largest religion in the world and about one-third of the global population adheres to it.
According to the data, Nigeria has over 88,400,000 Christians.
| Countries | Christians |
| United States | 230,000,000 |
| Russia | 80,000,000 |
| Philippines | 86,500,000 |
| Nigeria | 88,400,000 |
| Mexico | 107,780,000 |
| Italy | 53,230,000 |
| Ethiopia | 52,580,000 |
| DR Congo | 63,150,000 |
| China | 48,220,000 |
| Brazil | 180,770,000 |
While in the list of the countries officially adopted Christianity as their state religion, England has 25,585,000 Christians.
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| Countries | Christains |
| Vatican City | 825 |
| Armenia | 2,826,000 |
| Greece | 10,000,000 |
| Zambia | 12,939,000 |
| Argentina | 34,940,108 |
| Tuvalu | 10,000 |
| Costa Rica | 4,000,000 |
| Denmark | 4,400,754 |
| England | 25,585,000 |
| Georgia | 3,241,000 |
| Iceland | 272,200 |
| Liechtenstein | 30,000 |
| Malta | 400,000 |
| Monaco | 30,000 |
Verdict
The third claim that Nigeria has more Christians than United Kingdom is True.
