Using a questionnaire, the prevalence of headache as a primary symptom was investigated amongstudents of University of Ilorin. A total of 448 female and 1308 male students who constitute 72% and 69%respectively of the entire female and male student population of the University were studied.

61% of the females and 69% of the males suffered from recurrent headache. Classical migraine wasfound among 5.1% of the female and 3.4% of the male students respectively. Common migraine occurredabout 3 times as frequently as classical migraine. Muscle contraction - Vascular headache was thecommonest type of headache and was diagnosed in 24% of the female and 33% of the male students.Tension headache affected 16.5% and 9.9% of the female and male students respectively, while clusterheadache was the affliction of 3 male students who constitute about 0.2% of the male student population.

The commonest precipitating factors for the headache were mental and physical exhaustion, heat andmental stress for female students, and for male students, they were mental stress and alcohol. It isconcluded that recurrent headache is a very common symptom among the University students of Nigeria.