This study is directed toward the relationship between population growth and socioeconomic development in Nigeria for the period 1960-1984. A controlled population growth would positively affect every segment of the economic and social environment. With hunger and starvation, disease, poverty and illiteracy plaguing large portions of the world, Nigeria's limited resources would best be utilized if shared among a smaller population, Nigeria, like other developing African countries, does not have an official population control policy. The diversity in the Nigerian culture, the controversial nature of the subject of population control, and possibly, implementation difficulties, account for the absence of a population control policy in Nigeria. This study offers in its concluding section some policy recommendations on how to tackle Nigeria's population problem.