Numbeo’s 2025 mid-year data places Nigeria at the very bottom in global quality of life rankings, citing dire scores in safety, cost of living, health care, and purchasing power.
Top 25 Countries with the Lowest Quality of Life in 2025
1. 🇳🇬 Nigeria
2. 🇧🇩 Bangladesh
3. 🇻🇪 Venezuela
4. 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka
5. 🇪🇬 Egypt
6. 🇮🇷 Iran
7. 🇵🇪 Peru
8. 🇻🇳 Vietnam
9. 🇵🇭 Philippines
10. 🇱🇧 Lebanon
11. 🇰🇪 Kenya
12. 🇮🇩 Indonesia
13. 🇵🇰 Pakistan
14. 🇦🇱 Albania
15. 🇹🇭 Thailand…— Global Statistics (@Globalstats11) October 5, 2025
According to Numbeo’s 2025 mid-year Quality of Life Index, Nigeria ranks with a score of 21.5, placing it at the bottom of the list and making it statistically the country with the poorest quality of life.
That extraordinarily low ranking derives from the method by which Numbeo aggregates several measurable and subjective components—such as safety, health care, cost of living, pollution, and purchasing power—and combines them into a single comparative metric.
A closer look at Nigeria’s sub-indices highlights the severity of its challenges: the Safety Index hovers around 33.4 (indicating a high prevalence of crime or insecurity), while the Health Care Index is merely 49.1 (suggesting limited access to quality medical services). The Cost of Living Index also scores very low, at 26.4, implying that expenses are high relative to incomes and making daily survival a struggle for many Nigerians.
These figures mirror broader socioeconomic realities. Nearly 40 percent of Nigeria’s population lives below the international poverty line, and tens of millions face acute food insecurity. Meanwhile, health indicators remain among the worst globally: low life expectancy, high rates of child mortality, and persistent disease burdens all compound the quality-of-life crisis.
Furthermore, infrastructure deficits, governance challenges, and widespread corruption erode public service delivery. Rural and northern regions bear the brunt of underdevelopment, with limited basic services, poor roads, and inadequate educational facilities.
Critics of indices like Numbeo caution that such rankings depend on crowd-sourced data, which may underrepresent remote areas or marginalized groups. Also, different rankings use different weights and methodologies—so a country showing poorly in one index might fare differently in another. Still, Nigeria’s consistent presence at or near the bottom of quality-of-life lists alongside nations such as Venezuela, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Egypt underscores a pattern of systemic struggle.
In short, Nigeria’s top spot as the country with the poorest quality of life in Numbeo’s 2025 assessment reflects a convergence of insecurity, weak health systems, low incomes, pervasive poverty, and infrastructural decay—forces that together make everyday existence a hardship for millions.