In 1972, the population was about 112,000 people inhabiting a land area of about 1,306 square miles (3,380 km2) and scattered over six major districts.
The increasing agricultural surplus exhibited by the early settlers and the availability of fertile land near a river brought in a diverse and malleable group of migrants seeking fertile land to farm, and the groups were initially dominated by the Gungawas.
[1] However, by the eighteenth century, slave raiding had clipped the political and economic structures of the area.
The need for a much more powerful political entity became necessary in order to strengthen the emirate against slave raiders from without.
However, in early nineteenth century, the success of the Fulani jihad made Yauri a tributary state of Gwandu.