The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) says the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) recorded a 4.01 per cent drop in the applications received in 2018.
The NBS, in its JAMB Applications and Admitted Candidates by State and Gender within Faculty Data (2017-2018) posted on its website, stated that applications received in 2018 were 1.65 million as against the 1.72 million received in 2017.
This, it said, represented about 4.01 per cent drop in comparison to the total applications received in 2017.
Similarly, candidates admitted in 2018 were 549,763 as against the 566,719 admitted candidates in 2017.
The report said the fall in total admitted candidates in 2018 was about 2.99 per cent, compared to the total admitted candidates in 2017.
A further breakdown of the data showed that 902,176 applications received in 2018 were from males while 750,951 applications received were from female applicants.
The bureau said 952,436 applications received in 2017 were from males while the remaining 769,833 applications received were from female applicants.
In 2018, the bureau also said 302,183 male candidates were admitted as against 315,678 male candidates admitted in 2017 while 247,580 female candidates were admitted in 2018 as against 251,041 female candidates admitted in 2017.
Data for the report was supplied administratively by JAMB while it was verified and validated by NBS.
According to NBS, data in the report is restricted to test-based admissions and does not cover admissions not determined by official tests and examinations conducted by JAMB.