Nigeria: poverty rate, by state

Poverty headcount rate in Nigeria as of 2019, by state

Characteristic	Share of people in poverty
Sokoto	87.73%
Taraba	87.72%
Jigawa	87.02%
Ebonyi	79.76%
Adamawa	75.41%
Zamfara	73.98%
Yobe	72.34%
Niger	66.11%
Gombe	62.31%
Bauchi	61.53%
Enugu	58.13%
Nasarawa	57.3%
Katsina	56.42%
Kano	55.1%
Plateau	55.1%
Kebbi	50.2%
Kaduna	43.5%
Federal Capital Territory	38.7%
Cross River	36.3%
Benue	32.9%
Abia	30.7%
Imo	28.9%
Kogi	28.5%
Ekiti	28%
Akwa Ibom	26.8%
Rivers	23.9%
Bayelsa	22.6%
Kwara	20.4%
Anambra	14.8%
Ondo	12.5%
Edo	12%
Oyo	9.8%
Ogun	9.3%
Osun	8.5%
Delta	6%
Lagos	4.5%

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Release date

May 2020

More information

Region

Nigeria

Survey time period

2019

Supplementary notes

The source adds the following information: "The headcount ratio defines the proportion of population that is living in the households where the value of per capita total consumption expenditure is below or equal to the poverty line. The estimates exclude Borno state."

Citation formats

The Nigerian states of Sokoto and Taraba had the largest percentage of people living below the poverty line as of 2019. The lowest poverty rates were recorded in the South and South-Western states. In Lagos, this figure equaled 4.5 percent, the lowest rate in Nigeria.

A large population in poverty

In Nigeria, an individual is considered poor when they have an availability of less than 137.4 thousand Nigerian Naira (roughly 334 U.S. dollars) per year. Similarly, a person having under 87.8 thousand Naira (about 213 U.S. dollars) in a year available for food was living below the poverty line according to Nigerian national standards. In total, 40.1 percent of the population in Nigeria lived in poverty.

Food insecurity on the rise

On average, 21.4 percent of the population in Nigeria experienced hunger between 2018 and 2020. People in severe food insecurity would go for entire days without food due to lack of money or other resources. Over the last years, the prevalence with severe food among Nigerians has been increasing, as the demand for food is rising together with a fast-growing population.