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Oyo, Osun and Ogun states had the highest number of applicants in the 2021 edition of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), data published by Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) shows.

The three states together also had more candidates than the combined figure of the 10 states that had the least candidates.

Applicants from the three states totalled 227,706 of the country’s 1,351,215 applicants that sat for this year’s UTME, one of the prerequisites for any Nigerian student seeking higher education.

Oyo State had the most applicants with 82,521, Osun was behind with 74,214; and Ogun, 70,971 – the three states making up for an equivalent of 16 per cent of this year’s UTME applicants.

Placed in fourth place is Imo with 66,348 applicants; Delta, 64,104; Kogi, 60,115; Kaduna, 58,122; Benue, 55,617; and Ondo, 54,026.

Behind these states is Edo, which had 52,514 applicants; Kano, 52,514; Kwara, 51,787; Enugu, 48,268; and Akwa Ibom, 42,783.

The data also shows that there is no state from the North-east region among the first 15 states on the chart.

States with least applicants

Meanwhile, at the bottom of the ranking of the states are Zamfara, 6,545; FCT, 7,020; Sokoto, 10,302; Yobe, 11,946; and Jigawa, 13,784.

Other states with the least applicants are Taraba, 15,626; Adamawa, 18,956; Niger, 19,734; Gombe, 20,907; Ebonyi, 21,009; and Bauchi, 22,544.

Therefore, while Oyo, Osun and Ogun states had a total of 227,706 registered applicants, the bottom ten states had a total of 218,622 applicants.

Regional ranking

Four of the top ten states with the highest applications in this year’s JAMB are in the South-west region. Ekiti and Lagos, the two other states in the region, ranked 17th and 20th on the log respectively.

Likewise, Delta is the only South-south state in the top ten category. The state had 64,104 JAMB applications. Edo is eleventh on the ranking, while Akwa Ibom and Rivers ranked 15th and 19th respectively. Cross River placed 24th with 23,812 applicants, while Bayelsa ranked a distant 31st.

In the North-central region, Kogi placed 6th and had the highest number of applicants from the region. Benue finished in 8th position; Kwara, 13th with 51,787; Nasarawa, 21st and Niger, a distant 28th on the state-by-state ranking.

For the South-east, Imo and Anambra were among the top ten categories, while Enugu and Abia placed 14th and 18th respectively.

Meanwhile, in the least ten categories, there are four states from the North-west, the region with the highest number of out of school children.

All the six states in the North-east were among the last 15 states on the log.

Other states

Edo State has an application figure of 52,514; Kano, 52,364; Kwara, 51,787; Enugu, 48,268; Akwa Ibom, 42,783; Plateau, 36,040; and Ekiti, 35,862.