ABSTRACT The characteristics of street children are a subject of contention among researchers. While some researchers affirm that the backgrounds of street children, despite some differences, are remarkably similar, others opine that the characteristics of children are diverse, changing by location, context and over time. Consequently, emerging research attention has shifted to focusing on and developing a deeper understanding of their predicaments and daily experiences on the street. To have a nuanced account of street children in Nigerian cities, the study recruited 788 from Ibadan, Osogbo and Akure, using convenience sampling approach. The participants include 532 (67.5%) street boys and 256 (32.5%) girls. The sampled street children were disaggregated by their variety of experiences, predicaments and aspirations using their age and gender. The findings show that street children’s schooling status, risks of violence/abuse, drug use and career aspirations, among others, vary considerably between street boys and street girls. Therefore, it is recommended that the intervention programmes for street children be sensitive to the diversity of their involvement with the street and that the formulation of intervention policies be cognizant of the differences in age and gender among street children.