unicodeveloper/massweddings

Data mappings of all the mass weddings in Nigeria over the past 10 years # Nigeria Mass Weddings Map Every government-sponsored mass wedding in Nigeria over the past decade, plotted on the map and set against the things that explain them: how poor each state is, how many people live there, and how much money it gets from the federation account. In August 2026 Kano married 1,500 couples in a single two-day ceremony and the story travelled the world as a curiosity. It isn't one. Northern state governments have been running these programmes every year for a decade: Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Bauchi, Gombe, Jigawa. Usually through their Hisbah boards, usually paying the dowry, usually aimed at widows, divorcees and couples who cannot afford to marry. This map shows the whole pattern at once, and how sharply it stops at the middle belt. ## What it shows **The map.** Each circle is one ceremony, sized by the number of couples and coloured by who paid for it: state government, Hisbah board, emirate council, philanthropist. Circles outlined in white were announced but never confirmed as held. States are filled by whichever variable you pick: ceremonies held, multidimensional poverty, median age at first marriage, household electricity, population, or FAAC allocation, each labelled with the year of its source. Switching the fill from *ceremonies* to *age at first marriage* is the whole argument in one click: the states running these programmes are the states where women marry at 15 to 17. Flat by default, with a globe projection a click away. For a single country at this zoom the globe curves the frame without adding information, so the flat view is the honest default. The toggle is there when you want Nigeria in its regional context. **Regions.** A breakdown across the six geopolitical zones: North West, North East, North Central (Middle Belt), South West, South East and South South. Three views of each: raw ceremony counts, couples married, and ceremonies per 10 million residents, which strips out the effect of zone size …