Nigeria is no longer the poverty capital of the world but still has over 70 million people living in extreme poverty – the highest in Africa

Motorists lament traffic robbery in Lagos
20. Lagos, Nigeria — Africa's largest city, Lagos has huge gulfs between its rich and poor, with many Nigerians wealthy from the oil industry living right next to those stricken by poverty.
  • New data from the World Poverty Clock revealed that India has surpassed Nigeria as the nation with the highest number of extremely poor people.
  • According to the new data, India now has 83 million people living below the U.N. estimated poverty line in 2022.
  • For Nigeria, over 70 million people currently live in extreme poverty, representing 33 per cent of the country’s population.

According to the latest data from the World Poverty Clock, India has now surpassed Nigeria as the nation with the highest number of extremely poor people.

The World Poverty Clock (WPC), an online tool that provides real-time poverty data across countries, showed that 83 million Indians now live below the U.N. estimated poverty line of $2 in 2022.

In 2018, Nigeria surpassed India as the world’s poverty capital, with around 87 million people living in extreme poverty, compared with India’s 73 million. However, according to the WPC, the latest statistics of Nigerians living in extreme poverty was pegged at (70,677, 758) representing 33 per cent of the population.

The real-time poverty data tool showed that 53 per cent of the Nigerians currently living below the U.N. estimated poverty line are residents in the rural areas. Furthermore, the statistics also showed that males were slightly more affected by extreme poverty in Nigeria than their female counterparts, with the figure standing at around 35 million for males and 34 million for females.

In Africa, Nigeria leads the pack as the country with the highest people living below the poverty line followed by the Democratic Republic of Congo which has an estimated 67 million poor citizens. In third place is Madagascar with over 21 million poor citizens, followed by Angola with around 18 million poor citizens.

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