Nearly 83 per cent of Nigerians aged 16 and above without formal education live in poverty, according to the World Bank's October 2026 Poverty and Equity Brief for Nigeria. The bank defines poverty as living below $4.20 per person per day. This contrasts sharply with 26.6 per cent of those who have completed tertiary or post-secondary education living below that threshold, creating a poverty gap of 56.3 percentage points between the two groups. The findings, based on a 2022 household survey, show that Nigerians without formal education are more than three times as likely to live in poverty as those with tertiary qualifications.
Poverty declined progressively as educational attainment increased across other education levels. Of Nigerians who completed primary education, 60.9 per cent lived below the poverty line, compared with 51.6 per cent of those with secondary education. The poverty rate among individuals without education exceeded that of primary school graduates by 22 percentage points, while the difference between those with secondary and tertiary education stood at 25 percentage points. However, educational attainment did not guarantee financial security, as more than half of Nigerians with secondary education and over one-quarter of those with tertiary qualifications remained poor.
The World Bank found that children bore the highest poverty burden. Of Nigerians aged zero to 14 years, 73 per cent lived below the $4.20 daily threshold, compared with 58.1 per cent among working-age Nigerians aged 15 to 64 years and 47.1 per cent among those aged 65 and above. Gender disparities were marginal, with 64.3 per cent of females living in poverty compared with 63.7 per cent of males. On educational deprivation, 19.4 per cent of Nigerians lived in households where no adult had completed primary education, while seven per cent lived in households with at least one school-aged child not enrolled in school.
Beyond education, the World Bank found that 41.5 per cent of Nigerians lacked access to electricity, 34 per cent lacked limited-standard sanitation facilities, and 21.5 per cent lacked limited-standard drinking water. Nigeria's national poverty rate has risen significantly, from 40.1 per cent in 2019 to 56.2 per cent in 2023 and 63 per cent in 2026, the bank said. Multidimensional poverty, which measures both monetary poverty and access to basic infrastructure and services, increased from 43.5 per cent to 47.4 per cent between 2019 and 2023.
Regional disparities have widened. Poverty in northern Nigeria increased from 44.7 per cent in 2019 to 57.4 per cent in 2023, compared with an increase from 14.9 per cent to 21.2 per cent in the South. Looking ahead, the World Bank's October 2026 Macro Poverty Outlook projected that 69.5 per cent of Nigerians would live below the $4.20 daily poverty threshold in 2026, marginally lower than the 69.6 per cent estimated for 2025. The bank also estimated that 50.8 per cent would live in extreme poverty, surviving on less than $3 daily. Employment remained concentrated in low-productivity sectors, with agriculture accounting for more than 30 per cent of jobs and informal retail services accounting for about 25 per cent.
For savers, borrowers, business owners and investors, this means persistent poverty limits domestic consumer spending and business growth, while skills shortages and low-productivity employment constrain economic expansion and returns despite improvements in economic growth and inflation.