Data guide· 1 min read
Nigeria vs South Africa: which publishes more research? (2026)
Nigeria publishes more research than South Africa — 7,195 papers against 3,717 in the last 29 days, about 1.9 times as many.
Updated automatically every day. Data: 29 fully counted days, September 26, 2026 – October 24, 2026. Source: OpenAlex and PubMed.
Nigeria and South Africa compared
| Nigeria | South Africa | |
|---|---|---|
| Papers, last 29 days | 7,195 | 3,717 |
| Papers per day | 248 | 128 |
| World rank | #17 | #31 |
| Share of world papers | 1.00% | 0.52% |
| Days ahead (of 29) | 28 | 1 |
Day by day, last 14 days
| Date | Nigeria | South Africa |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 24 | 89 | 58 |
| Oct 23 | 188 | 112 |
| Oct 22 | 205 | 134 |
| Oct 21 | 345 | 195 |
| Oct 20 | 206 | 96 |
| Oct 19 | 218 | 87 |
| Oct 18 | 63 | 82 |
| Oct 17 | 111 | 55 |
| Oct 16 | 210 | 117 |
| Oct 15 | 237 | 164 |
| Oct 14 | 246 | 170 |
| Oct 13 | 276 | 128 |
| Oct 12 | 383 | 125 |
| Oct 11 | 54 | 28 |
How to read this
A paper counts for a country when at least one author works there, so a paper written together by Nigeria and South Africa researchers counts for both. Larger countries publish more in total; the share of world papers shows how much each contributes globally.
Open the full pages for Nigeria and South Africa, or compare any other country with the search box at the top.