The 2024 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey, NDHS, Report said Nigeria’s Total Fertility Rate, TFR, declined from 5.3 children per woman in 2018 to 4.8 in 2024, marking a major demographic shift over the past five years.
Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Iziaq Salako, disclosed this Friday in Abuja at the launch of the report.
Salako said the decline reflects gradual gains in access to and use of family planning services nationwide.
“Modern contraceptive use among currently married women increased modestly to 15 percent in 2023 from 12 percent in 2018, while demand for family planning rose to 37 percent,” he said.
He noted that although the improvements are encouraging, they remain below the levels required to drive rapid social and economic progress.
According to him, antenatal coverage currently stands at 63 percent, skilled birth attendance at 46 percent, while postnatal coverage within two days after delivery rose from 38 percent in 2018 to 42 percent in 2024.
Salako said under-five mortality rate had dropped significantly from 132 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2018 to 110 per 1,000 in 2024, while neonatal mortality remained nearly stagnant, moving from 39 to 41 per 1,000 live births within the same period.
“More efforts are required to reduce neonatal deaths, which account for about 40 to 45 percent of under-five mortality,” he added.
The minister said the findings highlight urgent gaps requiring coordinated response, adding that the ministry had already begun to translate them into policy reforms.
He said initiatives such as the Maternal and Maternal Fatality Reduction Initiative and the Nigerian Child Survivor Act (2023–2025) were designed to address context-specific challenges through coordinated interventions.
“This is being done with better health investments targeting improved coordination, efficient planning system, stronger community involvement and building partnerships.
“However, the utilisation of the 2024 NDHS report to strengthen the health system and drive measurable improvement is the responsibility of all stakeholders,” he said.
Salako added that the data would also guide sub-national governments to identify geographical areas requiring urgent intervention.
Also speaking, the Executive Chairman of the National Population Commission, NPC, Nasir Kwarra, said NDHS remains a vital instrument to understand population trends, child and maternal health, nutrition, malaria, HIV and other development indicators.
“Since its inception in 1990, NDHS has been a central pillar in Nigeria’s demographic data architecture.
“The 2024 edition continues this legacy, providing fresh insights at a time when the need for reliable evidence to guide policy has never been greater,” he said.
Kwarra said the survey was implemented by NPC with oversight from the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and support from development partners.
He added that the success of the exercise demonstrates the power of institutional collaboration and reaffirmed that “data is not merely a technical output, but a public good that empowers evidence-based governance”.
The Senior Health Specialist, World Bank, Dr Ritgak Tilly-Gyado, said the data would support the bank’s analytical work and policy modelling in key areas such as health, education and nutrition.
“NDHS provides critical data that will help us understand what has worked and where further support to the Nigerian government is most needed,” she said.
The 2024 NDHS, the sixth in the series since 1999, was designed to provide reliable data to monitor the population and health indicators in Nigeria.
Its pre-data collection phase ran from August 2022 to November 2023, covering tool development, training, recruitment, pre-testing and logistics, while fieldwork was conducted across 42,000 households nationwide between December 1, 2023 and May 5, 2024.
