Hauwa Ali
For millions of Nigerians, the struggle to stay alive is getting harder. According to new United Nations data for 2025, Nigeria now ranks lowest in global life expectancy, with the average citizen living just 54.9 years.
Men live an average of 54.3 years, women 54.9, placing the country behind every other nation on earth. Even war-torn Chad and the Central African Republic now rank higher, at 55.2 and 57.7 years respectively. The global average sits at 73.7 years.
The UN’s 2025 World Population Prospects paints a stark picture of Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation as a place where disease, poverty, insecurity, and government neglect are cutting lives short.
Nigeria’s life expectancy has barely moved in over a decade. Health experts say that’s no accident — it reflects a system that’s buckling under chronic underfunding and mismanagement.
The World Bank notes that Nigeria spends less than 4 percent of its GDP on healthcare, far below the 15 percent commitment African leaders made in the Abuja Declaration more than two decades ago.
The result is a system where hospitals often lack medicine, doctors, or even electricity. According to WHO data, the government spends just $83 per person annually on health, compared to $400 in South Africa and $200 in Ghana.
These fragile services are frequently shut down by labour disputes. In January 2025, the Association of Resident Doctors in the FCT began a three-day warning strike over unpaid wages, closing down key hospitals in Abuja, reported Daily Trust.
By July, the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM) went on a week-long nationwide strike, demanding better pay and safer staffing levels. Reuters confirmed that the action disrupted outpatient clinics across several states.
In Ogun State, doctors have been on and off strike since 2024, protesting salary disparities and unpaid allowances, according to TVC News.
“The constant strikes aren’t just about money,” said Dr. Chika Ibekwe, a public health expert at the University of Nigeria. “They’re about survival for patients and for health workers who can’t afford to live on what they earn.”
In rural Nigeria, the situation is even bleaker.
Many villages have health centres in name only — buildings without staff, equipment, or drugs. A Vanguard investigation in 2023 found that some primary health centres operate without a single doctor, relying instead on community health aides with minimal training.
The Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) admits that thousands of doctor positions in rural areas remain vacant, as graduates refuse postings with no accommodation, power, or security.
A 2022 study in the Journal of Global Health Reports revealed that only 43 percent of Nigeria’s 30,000 primary health centres are functional. Many lack running water or electricity.
The human cost is devastating. UNICEF estimates that 82,000 women die each year from pregnancy-related causes, one of the highest figures in the world. WHO data show that one in five Nigerian children dies before their fifth birthday, mostly from preventable illnesses like malaria, pneumonia, and diarrhoea.
Communicable diseases continue to dominate Nigeria’s mortality charts.
Malaria alone kills about 200,000 Nigerians annually, according to the WHO’s 2023 Malaria Report, nearly a quarter of the world’s total malaria deaths.
HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis remain widespread, while vaccine-preventable illnesses are making a comeback. In 2023, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) recorded 17,000 suspected diphtheria cases and over 600 deaths, the country’s worst outbreak in decades.
“Preventable diseases are killing people who should be alive,” said Dr. Walter Kazadi Mulombo, the WHO’s Representative in Nigeria, in a 2024 statement. “It’s not a question of medicine, it’s about access, awareness, and political will.”
Even outside hospitals, life expectancy is cut short by the environment itself.
The Air Quality Life Index (AQLI) by the University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute found in 2022 that air pollution shortens the average Nigerian’s life by 1.5 to 3 years.
In the oil-rich Niger Delta, gas flaring continues to poison communities. The Federal Ministry of Environment estimates that over 300 communities are directly exposed to toxic emissions. Studies have linked this pollution to rising rates of respiratory illness, cancer, and birth defects.
At the same time, insecurity is crippling healthcare access. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) says more than three million Nigerians are internally displaced by insurgency, banditry, and communal violence.
Many live in camps without sanitation or clinics. In a 2024 report, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) warned that displacement camps in Borno, Zamfara, and Benue lack even the most basic medical infrastructure, leading to recurring cholera outbreaks.
The country’s health system is also losing its most valuable asset, its workers.
The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) estimates that more than 15,000 doctors have left the country in the past decade, heading to the UK, Canada, and the Middle East. The UK General Medical Council reports that over 12,000 Nigerian-trained doctors are now practicing in Britain — twice as many as in 2017.
With roughly one doctor for every 4,500 citizens, Nigeria falls far short of the WHO’s recommended ratio of one per 600.
“The system is bleeding talent,” said Dr. Uche Ojinmah, NMA President, in a 2025 interview with Channels Television. “We train brilliant doctors who end up saving lives abroad while our own citizens die from lack of care.”
The health emergency is tied to a deeper economic one.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) says 133 million Nigerians — about 63 percent of the population — live in multidimensional poverty, lacking access to healthcare, education, and clean water.
A 2023 World Bank report, “A Better Future for All Nigerians,” found that poor families spend less than ₦10,000 ($12) a month on health. Many turn to unregulated drug sellers or traditional healers instead of formal clinics.
Malnutrition, dirty water, and overcrowded housing create a breeding ground for disease.
“Poverty is the mother of all illness,” said Dr. Faisal Shuaib, head of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA). “You can’t build a healthy nation when people can’t afford to eat or see a doctor.”
Nigeria’s short life expectancy is more than a health statistic, it’s a measure of how far the country is falling behind.
A 2022 study in the International Journal of Health Economics and Management showed that if Nigeria could raise life expectancy by just five years, its GDP per capita could increase by up to 10 percent.
“Health and wealth go hand in hand,” said World Bank Nigeria Country Director, Shubham Chaudhuri. “When citizens die in their 50s, the economy loses decades of productivity.”
The UN report warns that Nigeria’s figures are not just a “health challenge,” but “a warning signal for social and economic progress.”
Experts agree on what needs to change:
Invest in primary healthcare. Redirect funding toward rural clinics, vaccination, and maternal health.
Increase public spending. Raise the health budget toward the 15% Abuja target and ensure transparency in how it’s spent.
Protect health workers. Improve pay, safety, and career pathways to stem the exodus.
Clean the environment. Enforce anti-flaring laws and reduce pollution exposure.
Secure conflict zones. Rebuild destroyed clinics and deploy mobile health units in displaced areas.
These are not new recommendations — but without political will, experts fear Nigeria will keep sliding.
Nigeria’s new status as the world’s lowest in life expectancy is more than a global embarrassment, it’s a warning.
It signals what happens when years of policy neglect meet poverty, pollution, and poor governance. It shows how a nation of 230 million can be rich in resources, yet so poor in survival.
Unless Nigeria acts decisively, the country risks locking generations into the same cycle, where to live past 55 becomes an exception, not the rule.