Nigeria’s multidimensional poverty rate increased to 38.7 per cent in 2024 from 33 per cent in 2021, with an additional 17.9 million people experiencing overlapping forms of deprivation, according to a new United Nations report.
The 2026 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index report, released on Monday, October 12, by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), estimated that 90.1 million Nigerians were living in multidimensional poverty in 2024, compared with 72.2 million in 2021.
The report identified Nigeria as the country with the largest increase in the number of people experiencing multidimensional poverty among five countries that recorded a rise during their latest assessment periods. The other countries were Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, Guinea and Kyrgyzstan.
Unlike conventional poverty measures that focus on income and expenditure, multidimensional poverty assesses disadvantages across health, education and living standards. Its indicators include nutrition, child mortality, school attendance, years of schooling, access to electricity, clean drinking water, sanitation, adequate housing, cooking fuel and household assets.
The report noted that Nigeria had previously recorded improvements in poverty reduction, with the rate declining 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.
Globally, the report estimated that 1.2 billion people across 108 countries live in acute multidimensional poverty, representing 18.9 per cent of the population covered by the index. Sub-Saharan Africa accounted for 616 million of those affected, while children under 18 made up 617 million of the global total.
The findings highlight renewed challenges in achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of reducing poverty in all its dimensions by 2030. The report, however, noted that progress remains possible, with 33 countries having reduced their multidimensional poverty levels by at least half in fewer than 15 years.
