THE United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has said that 39 out of every 100 Nigerians lived in multidimensional poverty in 2024.
The country’s multidimensional poverty rate rose to 38.7 per cent in 2024 from 33 per cent in 2021, leaving an additional 17.9 million Nigerians in poverty.
In its 2026 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) report, released on Monday, the UN agency estimated that 90.1 million Nigerians lived in multidimensional poverty in 2024, compared with 72.2 million in 2021.
The report, co-produced by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), said Nigeria recorded the largest increase in the number of people experiencing multidimensional poverty among five countries that registered increases over their latest measurement periods.
The report estimated that 1.2 billion people across 108 countries including Nigeria, Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, Guinea and Kyrgyzstan lived in acute multidimensional poverty.
The figure represents 18.9 per cent of the 6.3 billion people covered by the index.
According to the report, the latest increase reversed the progress Nigeria made between 2018 and 2021, when the proportion of people living in multidimensional poverty declined.
Nigeria’s Multidimensional Poverty Index value also rose from 0.175 in 2021 to 0.208 in 2024, reflecting an increase in both the incidence and intensity of deprivation.
The intensity of deprivation among multidimensionally poor Nigerians increased from 52.9 per cent to 53.6 per cent during the same period.
Unlike income-based poverty measures, which assess poverty based on how much people earn or spend, the Multidimensional Poverty Index examines the overlapping disadvantages people experience in their daily lives.
The global MPI measures deprivation across three dimensions: health, education and standard of living.
Its 10 indicators are nutrition, child mortality, years of schooling, school attendance, cooking fuel, sanitation, drinking water, electricity, housing and household assets.
A person is classified as multidimensionally poor when their household experiences deprivation in at least one-third of the weighted indicators.
The measure captures situations in which people experience several disadvantages simultaneously, including inadequate access to education, electricity, clean water and sanitation.
The report noted that its estimates are based on household survey data collected in different years.
The report said Nigeria had recorded reductions in multidimensional poverty in the years preceding the latest increase.
The country’s MPI value declined from 0.230 in 2013 to 0.202 in 2018, and 0.175 in 2021 before rising to 0.208 in 2024.
Similarly, the proportion of Nigerians living in multidimensional poverty fell from 42.3 per cent in 2013 to 37.2 per cent in 2018 and 33 per cent in 2021, before rising to 38.7 per cent in 2024.
The number of people affected also declined from 76.3 million in 2018 to 72.2 million in 2021 before climbing to 90.1 million in 2024.
The latest figures suggest that the country’s earlier progress in reducing multidimensional poverty was not sustained.
The report also highlighted significant differences in deprivation across Nigeria’s subnational regions, with multidimensional poverty incidence ranging from 3.7 per cent to 88.3 per cent across the regions covered by the analysis.
It compared Yobe and Sokoto, two of Nigeria’s poorest subnational regions with similar MPI values, to illustrate how the types of deprivation experienced by communities can differ even when their overall poverty levels are comparable.
According to the report, these differences underscore the importance of examining individual deprivation indicators rather than relying solely on aggregate poverty figures.
According to the report, Sub-Saharan Africa recorded the highest multidimensional poverty rate of all the world’s regions, with 616 million people of its population, living in poverty.
The region accounts for more than half of the world’s multidimensionally poor population.
South Asia followed, with 393 million people living in multidimensional poverty.
The report found that 83.3 per cent of the world’s multidimensionally poor population, equivalent to about 998 million people, live in rural areas, compared with 200 million in urban areas.
The incidence of multidimensional poverty in rural areas stands at 28.7 per cent, compared with seven per cent in urban areas.
The report also found that children bear a disproportionate share of the global poverty burden.
Children below the age of 18 account for 617 million, or 51.5 per cent, of the world’s multidimensionally poor population.
Globally, approximately one in every three children lives in multidimensional poverty, compared with one in seven adults.
In sub-Saharan Africa, 355 million children live in multidimensional poverty, accounting for 57.7 per cent of the region’s poor population.
Nanji is an investigative journalist with the ICIR. She has years of experience in reporting and broadcasting human angle stories, gender inequalities, minority stories, and human rights issues. She has documented sexual war crimes in armed conflict, sex for grades in Nigerian Universities, harmful traditional practices and human trafficking.