Poorer than Adults and Deprived in Almost All Counts : Welfare Status of Children in Nigeria

Analyzing data from four waves of the Nigerian General Household Survey and the Nigerian MultipleIndicator Cluster Survey, covering the period from 2010 through 2019, this study provides evidence that povertylevels of children exceed those of adults. Overall, rural children throughout the country and children in the Northface higher poverty and chronic poverty rates than urban children and those living in the South without clear trendsof a closing of those gaps. These findings hold for monetary poverty as well as, for severe health, education, food,shelter, water, information deprivation and improved sanitation deprivation across Nigeria’s six regions. Oneexception is severe sanitation deprivation, for which especially rural areas in the Southwest stand out withhigher levels of severe sanitation deprivation than in rural areas in the north and any other region. Large inter-stateheterogeneity of estimates within regions, ranging up to 50 percentage points, for all except severe food deprivationhowever highlight the importance of looking beyond regional poverty estimates and regional differences. Only statespecific, but no systematic evidence has been found for a gender difference in severe educational deprivation andschool enrollment rates. Existing gender gaps though seem negligible compared to the overall level of deprivation andurban-rural and north-south gaps. Moreover, the parents’ literacy and more so the educational level is highlycorrelated with the probability of being poor or deprived in any dimension, in particular in rural and northern areas.Interestingly, up to about half of the monetary non-poor children at the top of the consumption distribution stillface at least one severe deprivation.