Abstract: The success of community development programmes has been found to be extensively influences by people’s ownership and participation. Studies had established that the diverse social backgrounds as well as the character of people’s belief, attitude and general ways of life affect their worldview and consequently their participation in community development programmes. However, there is a paucity of information on the extent to which this holds true in Nigeria. It is against this backdrop that this study examines sustainable community development programmes in socially diverse Nigerian communities. The study adopted a survey research design of ex-post facto type. A total of 1424 respondents resident in urban communities of Lagos state were selected through purposive and simple random sampling techniques. A set of questionnaires titled, Social Factors and Peoples Participation scale was used to obtain data for the study. Two research questions were generated and answered. Data were analyzed through simple percentages and Multiple Regression Analysis. Social factors (Membership of social organizations, Income, Education and Language spoken) jointly influenced people’s participation in community development programmes (R = 0.64, p<0.05). These factors accounted for 64% direct influence in relation to the dependent variable. The relative contributions of the variables are as follows: membership of social organizations (β = 0.25, p<0.05); income (β = 0.20, p<0.05); education (β = 0.17, p<0.05) and language spoken (β = 0.16, p<0.05). Based on these findings, the study recommends that social organizations within the community should be adequately mobilised for effective planning and execution of community development programmes.