Lagos

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This article is about the city, officially known as Lagos Metropolitan Area. For the Nigerian state which contains Lagos Metropolitan Area, see Lagos State. For the Portuguese city, see Lagos, Portugal. For other uses, see Lagos (disambiguation).

Lagos Èkó
Metropolis
Lagos Metropolitan Area Ìlú Èkó  (Yoruba)
Nickname(s): ""Eko akete"" Lasgidi[1][2]
Motto: Èkó ò ní bàjé o!
Lagos shown within the State of Lagos
Lagos Lagos shown within Nigeria
Coordinates: 6.455027°N 3.384082°ECoordinates: 6.455027°N 3.384082°E
Country	Nigeria
State	Lagos
LGA(s)[note 1]	List of LGAs[show]
Settled	15th century
Founded by	Awori subgroup of the Yoruba
Government
• Oba	Rilwan Akiolu I
Area[3]
• Metropolis	1,171.28 km2 (452.23 sq mi)
• Land	999.6 km2 (385.9 sq mi)
• Water	171.68 km2 (66.29 sq mi)
• Urban	907 km2 (350 sq mi)
• Metro	2,706.7 km2 (1,045.1 sq mi)
Elevation	41 m (135 ft)
Population (2006 census)[note 2]
• Metropolis	8,048,430
• Estimate (2012 by LASG)	16,060,303[7]
• Rank	1st
• Density	6,871/km2 (17,800/sq mi)
• Urban	13,123,000[6]
• Urban density	14,469/km2 (37,470/sq mi)
• Metro	21,000,000 (estimated)[5]
• Metro density	7,759/km2 (20,100/sq mi)
Demonym(s)	Lagosian
GDP
Time zone	WAT (UTC+1) (UTC+1)
Area code(s)	010[9]
Climate	Aw

Only Ikoyi-Obalande and Iru-Victoria Island LCDAs

Lagos /ˈleɪɡɒs/^[10] (Yoruba: Èkó) is a city in the Nigerian state of Lagos. The city, with its adjoining metropolitan area, is the largest in the continent of Africa, and one of the fastest growing in the world.^{[11][12][13][14][15][16][17]} Beyond this, it is also part of one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world.^[18][19] Lagos is a major financial centre in Africa; the megacity has the highest GDP,^[4] and also houses one of the largest and busiest ports on the continent.^[20][21][22]
Lagos initially emerged as a port city which originated on a collection of islands, which are contained in the present day Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Lagos Island, Eti-Osa, Amuwo-Odofin and Apapa; the islands are separated by creeks, fringing the southwest mouth of Lagos Lagoon, while protected from the Atlantic Ocean by barrier islands and long sand spits such as Bar Beach, which stretch up to 100 km (60 mi) east and west of the mouth. Due to rapid urbanization, the city expanded to the west of the lagoon to include areas in the present day Lagos Mainland, Ajeromi-Ifelodun and Surulere. This led to the classification of Lagos into two main areas - the Island, which was the initial city of Lagos, before it expanded into the area known as the Mainland.^[23] This city area was governed directly by the Federal Government through the Lagos City Council, until the creation of Lagos State in 1967, which led to the splitting of Lagos city into the present day seven Local Government Areas (LGAs), and an addition of other towns (which now make up 13 LGAs) from the then Western Region, to form the state.^[24]
Lagos, the capital of Nigeria since its amalgamation in 1914, went on to become the capital of Lagos State after its creation. However, the state capital was later moved to Ikeja in 1976, while the federal capital also moved to Abuja in 1991. Even though Lagos is still widely referred to as a city, the present day Lagos, also known as "Metropolitan Lagos", and officially as "Lagos Metropolitan Area"^[25][26][27] is an urban agglomeration or conurbation,^[28] consisting of 16 LGAs, including Ikeja, the state capital of Lagos State.^[4][29] This conurbation makes up 37% of Lagos State's total land area, but houses about 85% of the state's total population.^[4][24][30]
The exact population of Metropolitan Lagos is disputed; In the 2006 federal census data, the conurbation had a population of about 8 million people.^[31] However, the figure was disputed by the Lagos State Government, which later released its own population data, putting the population of Lagos Metropolitan Area at approximately 16 million.^{[note 3]} As at 2015, unofficial figures put the population of "Greater Metropolitan Lagos", which includes, Lagos and its surrounding metro area, extending as far as into Ogun State, at approximately 21 million.^{[3][24][32][33]}