Yoruba people

Yoruba
Ìran Yorùbá
Ọmọ Oòduà, Ọmọ Káàárọ̀-oòjíire
A group of Yoruba people at a public event
Total population
c. ≈ 51,329,000 (2024)[a][1]
Regions with significant populations
Nigeria42,600,000 (2020)[2]
Benin1,600,000[3]
Ghana425,600[4]
Togo342,500 (2014)[5]
United States207,052 (2022)[b][6]
Côte d'Ivoire115,000 (2017)[7]
Niger80,700 (2021)[8]
Canada42,075 (2021)[c][9]
Sierra Leone16,578 (2022)[10]
Ireland10,100 (2011)[11]
Gambia8,477 (2013)[12]
Australia4,020 (2021)[13]
Finland1,538 (2023)[14]
Languages
Religion
[15][16][17]
Related ethnic groups
(Gbe)  Aja · Ewe · Fon · Mahi · Ogu
(Kwa)  Adele · Akebu · Anii · Ga · Kposo
PersonỌmọ Yorùbá
PeopleỌmọ Yorùbá
LanguageÈdè Yorùbá
CountryIlẹ̀ Yorùbá
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Yorùbá people
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Notable personalities

The Yoruba people (/ˈjɒrʊbə/ YORR-uub-ə;[24][25] Yoruba: Ìran Yorùbá, Ọmọ Odùduwà, Ọmọ Káàárọ̀-oòjíire)[26] are a West African ethnic group who mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by the Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute more than 50 million people in Africa,[1] are over a million outside the continent, and bear further representation among members of the African diaspora. The vast majority of the Yoruba population is today within the country of Nigeria, where they make up 20.7% of the country's population according to Ethnologue estimations,[27][28] making them one of the largest ethnic groups in Africa. Most Yoruba people speak the Yoruba language, which is the Niger-Congo language with the largest number of native or L1 speakers.[29]


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

  1. ^ a b Sare, Watimagbo (2023). "Total population of the Yoruba people". Joshuaproject.net. Retrieved 18 December 2023.
  2. ^ "Yoruba, a language of Nigeria". Ethnologue, languages of the World. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 25th edition; Simons, Gary F. and Charles D. Fennig. 2022. Archived from the original on 7 December 2023. Retrieved 12 December 2023.
  3. ^ "Beninese Culture – Yoruba 12.3%". Beninembassy.us. Retrieved 29 October 2021.
  4. ^ "Middlesex University Research Repository, Introduction to the Ethno-Geographic origins of modern Ghana (The Yoruba 1.3%)" (PDF). Amoah, Michael (2001) Ethnonationalism versus political nationalism in Ghanaian electoral politics 1996–2000. PhD thesis, Middlesex University. 2001. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 February 2023. Retrieved 13 December 2022.
  5. ^ "République Togolaise (ifè:1.8 %, Yorouba: 1,4 %, Kambole/Nago: 0.7%. Total Yoruba; 3.9%)". Université Laval. 2014. Retrieved 13 December 2022.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference United States Census Bureau was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ "Yoruba, a language of Cote D'Ivoire (Leclerc 2017c)". Ethnologue, languages of the World. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 21st edition; Simons, Gary F. and Charles D. Fennig. 2017. Archived from the original on 26 May 2019. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
  8. ^ "Yoruba". Ethnologue. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
  9. ^ "2021 Canadian Population census, Ethnic or cultural origin by gender and age: Canada, provinces and territories". 11 May 2021. Retrieved 12 October 2024.
  10. ^ "Country profile: FGM in Sierra Leone, June 2014. The Krio are estimated to make up 2% of the Sierra Leonian population. Among the Krio, the overwhelmingly muslim Oku/Aku make up 15% and are almost exclusively of Yoruba descent" (PDF). 28toomany.org.
  11. ^ "Profile 6 – Migration and Diversity" (PDF). Central Statistics Office. October 2012. Retrieved 4 September 2021.
  12. ^ "Distribution of the Gambian population by ethnicity 1973,1983,1993,2003 and 2013 Censuses – GBoS – Yoruba as 'Aku Marabout', who are basically Yoruba Muslims". www.gbosdata.org. Archived from the original on 19 November 2021. Retrieved 17 June 2021.
  13. ^ "SBS Australian Census Explorer: 4,020 Yoruba language speakers". sbs.com.au.
  14. ^ "11rl – Language according to age and sex by region, 1990–2020. Yoruba; 1,538 speakers". Statistics Finland. Retrieved 2 June 2024.
  15. ^ "Research note: Exploring survey data for historical and anthropological research: Muslim–Christian relations in south-west Nigeria | Oxford Academic". Academic.oup.com. Retrieved 14 February 2022.
  16. ^ Nolte, Insa; Jones, Rebecca; Taiyari, Khadijeh; Occhiali, Giovanni (July 2016). "Research note: Exploring survey data for historical and anthropological research: Muslim–Christian relations in south-west Nigeria". African Affairs. 115 (460): 541–561. doi:10.1093/afraf/adw035.
  17. ^ Moshood, Busari (20 February 2017). GRIN - Identity conflicts among Yoruba Muslim groups in selected states of Nigeria. GRIN Verlag. ISBN 978-3-668-39964-8.
  18. ^ "Raceandhistory.com – Nigeria: The Edo of Benin". raceandhistory.com.
  19. ^ Lloyd, P. C. (1963). "The Itsekiri in the Nineteenth Century; an Outline Social History". The Journal of African History. 4 (2): 207–231. doi:10.1017/S0021853700004035. JSTOR 179535. S2CID 162964674.
  20. ^ Oyèláràn, Ọlásopé O. (May 2018). "Oríta Borgu: the Yorùbá and the Bààtonu down the ages". Africa. 88 (2): 238–266. doi:10.1017/S0001972017000900. ISSN 0001-9720. S2CID 150028429.
  21. ^ Francesco Montinaro; George B.J. Busby; Vincenzo L. Pascali; Simon Myers; Garrett Hellenthal; Cristian Capelli (24 March 2015). "Unravelling the hidden ancestry of American admixed populations". Nature Communications. 6: 6596. Bibcode:2015NatCo...6.6596M. doi:10.1038/ncomms7596. PMC 4374169. PMID 25803618.
  22. ^ Falola, Toyin (2016). Encyclopedia of the Yoruba. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. pp. 95–96. ISBN 978-0-253-02144-1.
  23. ^ "The Vitality of Yoruba Culture in the Americas" (PDF). 2020.
  24. ^ Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student's Handbook, Edinburgh
  25. ^ "Yoruba". Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 8 December 2022.
  26. ^ "The formation of Yoruba Nation and the challenge of leadership since Pre-Colonial Era, Pg 8". research gate.net. Retrieved 30 October 2021.
  27. ^ "Yoruba, a language of Nigeria". Ethnologue, languages of the World. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 25th edition; Simons, Gary F. and Charles D. Fennig. 2022. Archived from the original on 7 December 2023. Retrieved 23 December 2023.
  28. ^ Sare, Watimagbo (2020). "Population, total – Nigeria (2020)". world bank.org. Retrieved 23 December 2023.
  29. ^ Bendor-Samuel, John T. "Benue-Congo languages". Encyclopædia Britannica.