Bayelsa State
Bayelsa is a state in Nigeria's South South geopolitical zone.
- Capital
- Yenagoa
- Population
- 2.7M
- Total area
- 9,424 km²
- LGAs
- 8
- House Reps (total)
- 5
- IGR (2024)
- ₦64.0B
- Capital
- Yenagoa
- Population
- 2.7M
- 2023 estimate
- Land area
- 9,424 km²
- LGAs
- 8
- Senate seats
- 3
- IGR (2024)
- ₦64.0B
- internally generated revenue
Sub-national administrative units
Local government areas (8)
8 constitutional tier-3 units
Geopolitical synthesis
Bayelsa in the federation
Bayelsa is a state in Nigeria's South South geopolitical zone.
Bordering territories & maritime boundaries
- Land bordersDelta, Rivers
- Southern littoralAtlantic Ocean
Quick facts
- Date created
- 1996
- Known as
- Glory of All Lands
- Population
- ~2,700,000
- Climate classification
- Tropical Wet & Dry (Aw)
- LGAs
- 8
- Distance to Abuja
- 467 km
Languages, stories and places to explore
Languages spoken
Major cities
Yenagoa · Ogbia · Brass
What to explore · learn
Bayelsa, created in 1996, is one of Nigeria's newest and most riverine states, almost entirely within the Niger Delta.
Bayelsa is the home state of Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria's president from 2010 to 2015, the country's first from a Niger Delta minority background.
Oloibiri in Ogbia LGA saw Nigeria's first commercial oil discovery in 1956, with production beginning in 1958.
OloibiriNembe (Brass) was a major palm-oil trading kingdom whose people carried out the 1895 Akassa raid on the Royal Niger Company.
NembeAkassa
Cultural groups & homelands
Ijaw of Bayelsa
7 LGAsThe Ijaw (Izon) clans of Bayelsa State, with Epie-Atissa in Yenagoa.
Ogbia
1 LGAThe Ogbia people of Bayelsa State, in whose area Oloibiri lies.
Metro areas
Yenagoa Metropolis
Bayelsa State's capital on the Ekole Creek in the heart of the Niger Delta, home to the Epie-Atissa and surrounding Ijaw communities.