Income in Nigeria
The median income in Nigeria is about $2.58 a day per person (2021 PPP dollars) — richer than 10% of everyone alive. Half of Nigeria lives on less than that.
The world's own median person — about $7.73 a day — would stand in the top 4% of Nigeria.
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The curve
Daily income per person, log scale, PPP dollars — the same curve the machine walks you across.
What it takes to stand where
Take-home income per person, in today's NGN, at each point on the curve of Nigeria (the machine's convention: household take-home divided by the people it supports).
| Richer than… | per year, per person | per day (PPP $) |
|---|---|---|
| 10% of Nigeria | NGN 169,747 | $1.23 |
| 25% of Nigeria | NGN 240,819 | $1.75 |
| 50% of Nigeria | NGN 356,054 | $2.58 |
| 75% of Nigeria | NGN 534,081 | $3.87 |
| 90% of Nigeria | NGN 773,520 | $5.61 |
| 99% of Nigeria | NGN 1,932,074 | $14 |
Rounded, never inflated: the machine floors "richer than" claims.
The four levels in Nigeria
How much of Nigeria and of the world lives on each of four income levels. The cuts are the World Bank's $3.00 (international poverty line) and $8.30 (upper-middle-income line), both 2021 PPP; the top cut, $33, is the machine's own, four times the $8.30 line. The objects are what an income on each level tends to buy across the world's surveys — not a description of any one country.
| Level | per day (PPP $) | What tends to come with it, worldwide | Nigeria | World |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | under $3.00 | a fire to cook on, water carried home from the well, everywhere on foot | 60% | 13% |
| Level 2 | $3.00–$8.30 | a bicycle, a gas canister for the stove, a tap within walking distance | 37% | 39% |
| Level 3 | $8.30–$33 | a motorbike, a gas stove, a bank account | 3% | 32% |
| Level 4 | $33+ | a car, a fridge, hot water from the tap | <1% | 15% |
- Level 1 · under $3.00 a dayNigeria 60% · World 13%a fire to cook on, water carried home from the well, everywhere on foot
- Level 2 · $3.00–$8.30 a dayNigeria 37% · World 39%a bicycle, a gas canister for the stove, a tap within walking distance
- Level 3 · $8.30–$33 a dayNigeria 3% · World 32%a motorbike, a gas stove, a bank account
- Level 4 · $33+ a dayNigeria <1% · World 15%a car, a fridge, hot water from the tap
About 60% of Nigeria lives on Level 1, under $3.00 a day per person; worldwide, roughly one in seven people do.
The line that moved
In Nigeria, 55% lived under the $3.00 line at the 1992 survey; 42% at the 2022 one — a fall of 13 points in 30 years.
Share of Nigeria under $3.00 a day (2021 prices) at each national survey, World Bank PIP via Our World in Data; the faint line is the world's.
Worldwide, the share under the World Bank's $3.00-a-day line fell from about 43% in 1990 to about 10% today (Our World in Data; the latest years are the Bank's nowcast). Where the lift came, it came the unglamorous way: wages, harvests, workshops.
Who earns what in Nigeria
8 portraits, not payroll data: each stands roughly where that kind of work typically earns on the curve of Nigeria.
| the lowest 10% | the earnings of a smallholder farmer — cassava, maize, and no idle season |
|---|---|
| 10–25% | the earnings of a market trader in Onitsha — one of Africa’s great markets |
| 25–45% | the earnings of a danfo bus conductor in Lagos — traffic is a business opportunity |
| 45–65% | the earnings of a primary-school teacher |
| 65–82% | the earnings of a bank clerk in Abuja |
| 82–93% | the earnings of a bank branch manager in Abuja |
| 93–98% | the earnings of a petroleum engineer — the formal sector’s steepest ladder |
| the highest 2% | the earnings of an industrialist |
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Where this comes from
The World Bank's Poverty and Inequality Platform percentile distribution for Nigeria (survey year 2022), in 2021 PPP dollars; incomes typed in today's money are deflated to 2021 prices with the national CPI and converted with the 2021 consumption-PPP factor. Snapshot fetched September 2026. Full methodology & honesty rules.
Neighbours on the curve
The countries whose median income sits nearest to Nigeria's — and a few far from it, for scale.