Nigerian Americans

A Nigerian American is a person who was born in the United States yet has family roots in Nigeria. Since 1980, when the population was just 25,000, the amount of Nigerians who have immigrated to and settled in the United States has increased at a fast rate. According to the results of the 2019 American Community Survey (ACS), it was projected that 461,695 people living in the United States have Nigerian ancestry. The 2019 American Community Survey further projected that about 392,811 of these people, or 85%, had been born in Nigeria. As of 2013, Nigeria maintained its position as the continent's most populated nation, and it also led all of Africa in terms of the number of its citizens who settled in the United States. In a study that was conducted by consumer genetics company 23andMe and which involved the DNA of 50,281 people of African descent in the United States, Latin America, and western Europe, it was found that Nigeria was the most common country of origin for testers from the United States, the French Caribbean, and the British Caribbean. The study was carried out by analysing the DNA of people of African descent in the United States, Latin America, and western Europe. As is the case with British Nigerians, the majority of people of Nigerian ancestry in the United States come from the Christian south of the nation, as opposed to the primarily Muslim north.

Nigerian Americans are the most educated population in the United States, according to data conducted by Rice University.

According to the American Community Survey that was carried out by the United States Census Bureau between the years of 2008 and 2012, 61.4% of Nigerian Americans aged 25 or older possess a bachelor's degree or higher, although only 28.5% of the overall population of the United States does so. According to research conducted by the Migration Policy Institute, 29% of Nigerian Americans have a master's degree, doctorate, or other advanced professional degree, which is much higher than the national average of 11% for the population of the United States. The contributions that Nigerian Americans have made to the fields of health, science, technology, the arts, and literature are well-known.

Education has traditionally been a central focus in Nigerian culture, and the country places a premium on scholastic achievement as a path to socioeconomic stability. Professors Akintunde Akinwande, Oyekunle Olukotun, Jacob Olupona, and Dehlia Umunna, who are all Nigerian Americans, are some notable examples of Nigerian Americans working in the field of education. ImeIme Umana, the first Black woman to be elected president of the Harvard Law Review, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the first woman to become the head of the World Trade Organization (WTO), and Tanitoluwa Adewumi, a homeless child refugee who went on to become a chess prodigy, are three recent examples of famous people who overcame adversity to achieve great success. Dr. Bennet Omalu, who was represented by Will Smith in the movie Concussion, and Emmanuel Acho, who is the presenter of the weekly activist webcast Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man, are two examples of Nigerian Americans who have appeared in mainstream media.