arable land: 12.3%
permanent crops: 0.1%
permanent pasture: 22.7%

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.

urban: 100% of population
rural: 48.6% of population
total: 58.2% of population
urban: 0% of population
rural: 51.4% of population
total: 41.8% of population (2015 est.)

urban: 37.9% of population
rural: 4.6% of population
total: 10.9% of population
urban: 62.1% of population
rural: 95.4% of population
total: 89.1% of population (2015 est.)

Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism or PNDS-Tarrayya [Mahamadou ISSOUFOU]
Nigerien Patriotic Movement or MPN-Kishin Kassa [Ibrahim YACOUBA]
Party for Socialism and Democracy in Niger or PSDN-Alheri
Patriotic Movement for the Republic or MPR-Jamhuriya [Albade ABOUBA]
Rally for Democracy and Progress-Jama'a or RDP-Jama'a [Hamid ALGABID]
Social and Democratic Rally or RSD-Gaskiyya [Amadou CHEIFFOU]
Social Democratic Party or PSD-Bassira [Mohamed BEN OMAR]
Union for Democracy and the Republic-Tabbat or UDR-Tabbat [Amadou Boubacar CISSE]

Niger is a landlocked sub-Saharan nation whose economy centers on subsistence crops livestock and some of the world's largest uranium deposits. Agriculture contributes approximately 25% of GDP and provides livelihood for 87% of the population. The UN ranked Niger as the second least developed country in the world in 2016 due to multiple factors such as food insecurity lack of industry high population growth a weak educational sector and few prospects for work outside of subsistence farming and herding.
Since 2011 public debt has increased due to efforts to scale-up public investment particularly that related to infrastructure as well as due to increased security spending. The government relies on foreign donor resources for a large portion of its fiscal budget. The economy in recent years has been hurt by terrorist activity and kidnappings near its uranium mines and by instability in Mali and in the Diffa region of the country; concerns about security have resulted in increased support from regional and international partners on defense. Low uranium prices demographics and security expenditures may continue to put pressure on the government’s finances.
Future growth may be sustained by exploitation of oil gold coal and other mineral resources. Although Niger has sizable reserves of oil the prolonged drop in oil prices has reduced profitability. Food insecurity and drought remain perennial problems for Niger and the government plans to invest more in irrigation. Niger’s three-year $131 million IMF Extended Credit Facility (ECF) agreement for the years 2012-15 was extended until the end of 2016. In February 2017 the IMF approved a new 3-year $134 million ECF. A $437 million Millennium Challenge Account compact for Niger commencing in FY17 will focus on large-scale irrigation infrastructure development and community-based climate-resilient agriculture while promoting sustainable increases in agricultural productivity and sales.
Formal private sector investment needed for economic diversification and growth remains a challenge given the country’s limited domestic markets access to credit and competitiveness. Although President ISSOUFOU is courting foreign investors including those from the US as of April 2017 there were no US firms operating in Niger.

$20.39 billion (2016 est.)
$19.17 billion (2015 est.)
$18.24 billion (2014 est.)

5% (2016 est.)
4% (2015 est.)
7.5% (2014 est.)

$1100 (2016 est.)
$1100 (2015 est.)
$1100 (2014 est.)

24.1% of GDP (2016 est.)
24.4% of GDP (2015 est.)
23.7% of GDP (2014 est.)

2.6% (2016 est.)
2.6% (2015 est.)

34 (2007)
50.5 (1995)

45.9% of GDP (2016 est.)
41.3% of GDP (2015 est.)

0.3% (2016 est.)
1% (2015 est.)

4.25% (31 December 2015)
4.25% (31 December 2014)

5.3% (31 December 2016 est.)
5.15% (31 December 2015 est.)

$1.535 billion (31 December 2016 est.)
$1.508 billion (31 December 2015 est.)

$2.018 billion (31 December 2016 est.)
$1.909 billion (31 December 2015 est.)

$1.267 billion (31 December 2016 est.)
$1.145 billion (31 December 2015 est.)

$-1.159 billion (2016 est.)
$-1.486 billion (2015 est.)

$1.101 billion (2016 est.)
$1.087 billion (2015 est.)

$2.031 billion (2016 est.)
$1.976 billion (2015 est.)

$2.926 billion (31 December 2016 est.)
$2.892 billion (31 December 2015 est.)

Communaute Financiere Africaine francs (XOF) per US dollar -
593.01 (2016 est.)
593.01 (2015 est.)
591.45 (2014 est.)
494.42 (2013 est.)
510.53 (2012 est.)

4% of GDP (2016)
5.46% of GDP (2015)
3.45% of GDP (2014)
1.06% of GDP (2012)
1.31% of GDP (2011)