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Nigeria has an estimated 73.1 million people living in extreme poverty, the highest absolute number globally, according to World Data Lab.
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The Democratic Republic of Congo follows closely with 71.6 million, leaving just 1.5 million people between the two countries.
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Seven of the 10 countries with the largest extreme-poverty populations are in Africa.
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Nigeria’s ranking refers to the number of people affected, not the percentage of its population living in extreme poverty.
October 19, (THEWILL) – Nigeria has more people living in extreme poverty than any other country in the world, according to 2026 estimates from World Data Lab.
The World Poverty Clock puts the number at approximately 73.1 million Nigerians, narrowly ahead of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where an estimated 71.6 million people live in extreme poverty.
The difference between the two countries is only 1.5 million people.
Afghanistan comes a distant third with 35.2 million people, less than half Nigeria’s figure, while Mozambique and Yemen complete the first five with 25 million and 24.2 million respectively.
10 Countries With Most People In Extreme Poverty
According to figures attributed to World Data Lab, the 2026 ranking is:
- Nigeria — 73.1 million
- DR Congo — 71.6 million
- Afghanistan — 35.2 million
- Mozambique — 25 million
- Yemen — 24.2 million
- Tanzania — 23.9 million
- Madagascar — 20.1 million
- Uganda — 18.2 million
- India — 14.46 million
- Ethiopia — 14.3 million
The ranking also shows how heavily extreme poverty is now concentrated in Africa.
Seven of the 10 countries are African, including the first two. Afghanistan, Yemen and India are the only countries outside the continent to make the list.
World Data Lab’s World Poverty Clock uses economic and demographic data to model poverty levels across countries and update estimates over time. The organisation says its underlying data come from recognised institutions including the World Bank, IMF and United Nations, while its forecasts are updated as new economic and demographic information becomes available.
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Nigeria Is First By Number, Not Poverty Rate
However, Nigeria’s position at the top requires an important qualification.
Having the world’s largest number of people living in extreme poverty does not mean Nigeria has the world’s highest poverty rate.
Nigeria’s much larger population means it can have more people in extreme poverty than smaller countries where a greater percentage of citizens live below the poverty threshold.
Available World Poverty Clock data put Nigeria’s extreme-poverty population at about 73.1 million, or roughly 31% of the country’s population. Other countries, including some with smaller populations, record higher proportions even though their absolute number of poor people is lower.
That distinction is particularly important because different poverty figures for Nigeria frequently circulate together despite measuring different things.
73.1 Million Is Not Same As Nigeria’s 133 Million Poverty Figure
For instance, the National Bureau of Statistics estimated in 2022 that 133 million Nigerians were multidimensionally poor.
That figure measures deprivation across areas including health, education, living standards, employment and exposure to shocks. It therefore cannot be directly compared with World Data Lab’s estimate of people living in extreme monetary poverty.
Similarly, the World Bank revised its international extreme-poverty benchmark in June 2025 from $2.15 a day in 2017 purchasing-power-parity terms to $3 a day using 2021 PPPs. The change also resulted in substantial revisions to global poverty estimates.
Consequently, poverty figures from different institutions or years should only be compared after establishing the poverty line, purchasing-power methodology and type of deprivation being measured.
Africa Dominates A Ranking No Continent Wants
Even with those methodological differences, the geographic concentration is difficult to miss.
Nigeria, DR Congo, Mozambique, Tanzania, Madagascar, Uganda and Ethiopia all appear in the global top 10.
Meanwhile, the World Bank has repeatedly identified Sub-Saharan Africa as the region where extreme poverty is increasingly concentrated. When it updated the international poverty line in 2025, the Bank estimated that the methodological revisions added about 111 million people to Sub-Saharan Africa’s extreme-poverty count alone.
Nigeria’s latest position therefore sits inside a much larger continental problem.
However, its place at number one gives that problem an unusual scale.
For every statistic about falling inflation, rising GDP, stronger markets or expanding government revenues, 73.1 million people estimated to be living at the very bottom of the income distribution provide another measure of how much of that economic progress is reaching ordinary households.
Joy Onuorah is a business journalist and brand communications specialist covering financial markets, artificial intelligence, digital economy, and the ideas reshaping business across Africa and the global market. Beyond her reporting for TheWill, Joy uses brand strategy, storytelling, copywriting, and high-value SEO to help brands build lasting market authority.
