!!!Niger: People & Society
||Population|18,638,600 (July 2016 est.)
||Nationality|''noun'': Nigerien(s) \\ ''adjective'': Nigerien \\ 
||Ethnic groups|Hausa 53.1%, Zarma/Songhai 21.2%, Tuareg 11%, Fulani (Peul) 6.5%, Kanuri 5.9%, Gurma 0.8%, Arab 0.4%, Tubu 0.4%, other/unavailable 0.9% (2006 est.)
||Languages|French (official), Hausa, Djerma
||Religions|Muslim 80%, other (includes indigenous beliefs and Christian) 20%
||Demographic profile|Niger has the highest total fertility rate (TFR) of any country in the world, averaging close to 7 children per woman in 2016. A slight decline in fertility over the last few decades has stalled. This leveling off of the high fertility rate is in large part a product of the continued desire for large families. In Niger, the TFR is lower than the desired fertility rate, which makes it unlikely that contraceptive use will increase. The high TFR sustains rapid population growth and a large youth population – almost 70% of the populace is under the age of 25. Gender inequality, including a lack of educational opportunities for women and early marriage and childbirth, also contributes to high population growth. Because of large family sizes, children are inheriting smaller and smaller parcels of land. The dependence of most Nigeriens on subsistence farming on increasingly small landholdings, coupled with declining rainfall and the resultant shrinkage of arable land, are all preventing food production from keeping up with population growth. For more than half a century, Niger's lack of economic development has led to steady net outmigration. In the 1960s, Nigeriens mainly migrated to coastal West African countries to work on a seasonal basis. Some headed to Libya and Algeria in the 1970s to work in the booming oil industry until its decline in the 1980s. Since the 1990s, the principal destinations for Nigerien labor migrants have been West African countries, especially Burkina Faso and Cote d’Ivoire, while emigration to Europe and North America has remained modest. During the same period, Niger’s desert trade route town Agadez became a hub for West African and other sub-Saharan migrants crossing the Sahara to North Africa and sometimes onward to Europe. More than 60,000 Malian refugees have fled to Niger since violence between Malian government troops and armed rebels began in early 2012. Ongoing attacks by the Boko Haram Islamist insurgency, dating to 2013 in northern Nigeria and February 2015 in southeastern Niger, have pushed tens of thousands of Nigerian refugees and Nigerien returnees across the border to Niger and to displace thousands of locals in Niger’s already impoverished Diffa region.
||Age structure|''0-14 years'': 49.31% (male 4,635,901/female 4,554,010) \\ ''15-24 years'': 18.85% (male 1,734,887/female 1,777,896) \\ ''25-54 years'': 25.94% (male 2,414,668/female 2,419,725) \\ ''55-64 years'': 3.27% (male 316,655/female 293,570) \\ ''65 years and over'': 2.64% (male 250,314/female 240,974) (2016 est.) \\ 
||Dependency ratios|''total dependency ratio'': 113% \\ ''youth dependency ratio'': 107.5% \\ ''elderly dependency ratio'': 5.5% \\ ''potential support ratio'': 18.2% (2015 est.) \\ 
||Median age|''total'': 15.3 years \\ ''male'': 15.2 years \\ ''female'': 15.4 years (2016 est.) \\ 
||Population growth rate|3.22% (2016 est.)
||Birth rate|44.8 births/1,000 population (2016 est.)
||Death rate|12.1 deaths/1,000 population (2016 est.)
||Net migration rate|-0.5 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2016 est.)
||Population distribution|majority of the populace is located in the southernmost extreme of the country along the border with Nigeria and Benin
||Urbanization|''urban population'': 18.7% of total population (2015) \\ ''rate of urbanization'': 5.14% annual rate of change (2010-15 est.) \\ 
||Major urban areas - population|NIAMEY (capital) 1.09 million (2015)
||Sex ratio|''at birth'': 1.03 male(s)/female \\ ''0-14 years'': 1.02 male(s)/female \\ ''15-24 years'': 0.98 male(s)/female \\ ''25-54 years'': 1 male(s)/female \\ ''55-64 years'': 1.08 male(s)/female \\ ''65 years and over'': 1.04 male(s)/female \\ ''total population'': 1.01 male(s)/female (2016 est.) \\ 
||Mother's mean age at first birth|18.1 \\ ''__note__'': median age at first birth among women 25-29 (2012 est.) \\ 
||Maternal mortality rate|553 deaths/100,000 live births (2015 est.)
||Infant mortality rate|''total'': 82.8 deaths/1,000 live births \\ ''male'': 87.3 deaths/1,000 live births \\ ''female'': 78.2 deaths/1,000 live births (2016 est.) \\ 
||Life expectancy at birth|''total population'': 55.5 years \\ ''male'': 54.3 years \\ ''female'': 56.8 years (2016 est.) \\ 
||Total fertility rate|6.62 children born/woman (2016 est.)
||Contraceptive prevalence rate|13.9% (2012)
||Health expenditures|5.8% of GDP (2014)
||Physicians density|0.02 physicians/1,000 population (2008)
||Drinking water source|''improved'':  \\ urban: 100% of population \\ rural: 48.6% of population \\ total: 58.2% of population \\ ''unimproved'':  \\ urban: 0% of population \\ rural: 51.4% of population \\ total: 41.8% of population (2015 est.) \\ 
||Sanitation facility access|''improved'':  \\ urban: 37.9% of population \\ rural: 4.6% of population \\ total: 10.9% of population \\ ''unimproved'':  \\ urban: 62.1% of population \\ rural: 95.4% of population \\ total: 89.1% of population (2015 est.) \\ 
||HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate|0.46% (2015 est.)
||HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS|49,000 (2015 est.)
||HIV/AIDS - deaths|3,600 (2015 est.)
||Major infectious diseases|''degree of risk'': very high \\ ''food or waterborne diseases'': bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever \\ ''vectorborne diseases'': malaria and dengue fever \\ ''water contact disease'': schistosomiasis \\ ''respiratory disease'': meningococcal meningitis \\ ''animal contact disease'': rabies (2016) \\ 
||Obesity - adult prevalence rate|3.7% (2014)
||Children under the age of 5 years underweight|37.9% (2012)
||Education expenditures|6.7% of GDP (2014)
||Literacy|''definition'': age 15 and over can read and write \\ ''total population'': 19.1% \\ ''male'': 27.3% \\ ''female'': 11% (2015 est.) \\ 
||School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education)|''total'': 5 years \\ ''male'': 6 years \\ ''female'': 5 years (2012) \\ 
||Child labor - children ages 5-14|''total number'': 1,557,913 \\ ''percentage'': 43% (2006 est.) \\ 
||Unemployment, youth ages 15-24|''total'': 2.3% \\ ''male'': 4.4% \\ ''female'': 0.8% (2007 est.) \\