🇳🇬 Cities in Nigeria — API & JSON data

5,007 cities. 42 regions. 12 languages. That's the current coverage for Nigeria in the Geomelon API, led by Lagos at 15,070,000 people.

Data updated: 2026-07-14

Live demo

Type to search Nigeria cities…

Top 10 cities by population

City	Region	Population
Lagos	Lagos State	15,070,000
Kano	Kano State	4,348,000
Port Harcourt	Rivers State	3,325,000
Ibadan	Oyo State	2,550,593
Benin City	Edo State	1,780,000
Onitsha	Anambra State	1,483,000
Maiduguri	Borno State	1,197,497
Ogbomosho	Oyo State	1,032,000
Tanke	Kwara State	1,030,000
Enugu	Enugu State	1,029,400

Sample API response

GET /cities/search?countryCode=ng&sort=population_desc&limit=3

[
  {
    "id": "557d7d02-e0af-44dd-8452-c7537c0a2030",
    "name": "Lagos",
    "population": 15070000,
    "countryName": "Nigeria",
    "countryCode": "NG",
    "countryEmoji": "🇳🇬",
    "regionName": "Lagos State"
  },
  {
    "id": "3e9716d3-356c-47b8-bac3-ef248ca7bce8",
    "name": "Kano",
    "population": 4348000,
    "countryName": "Nigeria",
    "countryCode": "NG",
    "countryEmoji": "🇳🇬",
    "regionName": "Kano State"
  },
  {
    "id": "d32f5463-ed40-4ece-bcee-cd06a91c255a",
    "name": "Port Harcourt",
    "population": 3325000,
    "countryName": "Nigeria",
    "countryCode": "NG",
    "countryEmoji": "🇳🇬",
    "regionName": "Rivers State"
  }
]

Try it

curl --request GET \
  --url 'https://geomelon.p.rapidapi.com/cities/search?countryCode=ng&sort=population_desc&limit=10' \
  --header 'x-rapidapi-host: geomelon.p.rapidapi.com' \
  --header 'x-rapidapi-key: YOUR_API_KEY'

const res = await fetch(
  'https://geomelon.p.rapidapi.com/cities/search?countryCode=ng&sort=population_desc&limit=10',
  {
    headers: {
      'x-rapidapi-host': 'geomelon.p.rapidapi.com',
      'x-rapidapi-key': 'YOUR_API_KEY',
    },
  },
)
const cities = await res.json()

Multilingual city names

City names in Nigeria are available in 12 languages.

en: Lagos
zh: 拉各斯
ru: Лагос

Free dataset

Prefer a static file? Download 124 Nigeria cities as JSON (18 KB, no API key) from the Nigeria cities dataset page.

FAQ

How many cities in Nigeria does the API return?

Geomelon currently has 5,007 cities in Nigeria across 42 regions. Results are paginated, up to 100 per request.

Is there a free tier?

Yes. RapidAPI's free tier covers a fixed number of requests per month with no credit card required. There is also a free, no-key city-autocomplete endpoint (the demo above) for prefix search.

Can I get Nigeria city names in other languages?

Yes — city names in Nigeria are available in 12 languages. Pass the languages you want via the preferredLanguages parameter, most-preferred first.

Do I need an API key?

The main search and lookup endpoints require a free RapidAPI key. The prefix-search autocomplete endpoint used in the demo above is public and does not require a key.

Try free on RapidAPI