IIARD International Institute of Academic Research and Development

IIARD International Journal of Economics and Business Management (IJEBM )

E-ISSN 2489-0065
P-ISSN 2695-186X
VOL. 11 NO. 4 2025
DOI: 10.56201/ijebm.vol.11.no4.2025.pg33.45

---

Impact Of Population Growth and Poverty on Health in Nigeria

Olaniyan Oluwakemi Stella PhD

---

Abstract

The study examined the impact of population growth and poverty on health in Nigeria from 1981 to 2023. To achieve the objectives, annual time series data on Human Development Index (HDI), Population Growth Rate and Poverty were collected from secondary sources. The dependent variable was health which was proxy by life expectancy at birth. The independent variable – population growth (was disaggregated into rural and urban population growth rate) and poverty rate. The E-views 12 Statistical Software was employed to analyze the data empirically. The Unit root test was adopted to test the stationarity of variables. The Unit root test shows that Life expectancy at birth (LEB), Urban population growth rate (UPGR), and poverty rate (PVT) variables evaluated are all stationary after first difference I(1) while Rural population growth rate (RPGR) was stationary at level I(0). The result indicated that that the coefficients of UPGR, RPGR are positively signed and statistically significant in the long-run and short-run. It therefore means, UPGR and RPGR positively affect life expectancy at birth in Nigeria. The study recommends amongst others that the Nigerian government should raise minimum wage, create more employment opportunities, invest in quality and universal education, expand health and medical care, and provide easy access to the political process to reduce the poverty rate in the country.

keywords:

Population growth, Poverty, Life expectancy, ARDL, Nigeria

---

References:

Akanbi, O. A. (2016). The growth, poverty and inequality nexus in South Africa: Co-integration
and causality analysis, Development Southern Africa, 33(2), 166-185.
Ali, M. S., Raza, S. M. F., Din, N. U., &Abidin, S. U. A. (2018). Population, poverty and economic
development nexus: empirical study of some selected developing countries. Pakistan
Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 6(4), 458 – 476.
Ayesha, I. M. (2014). Population dynamics and economic growth in Nigeria. Journal of Economics
and Sustainable Development, 7(15), 16-24.
Bello-Imam, I. B. (2004). Health policy and planning in Nigeria. Management Problems of
Primary Health Care in Nigeria. Institute of Public Administration and Extension
Services: 325–356.
Dauda, R. S. (2017). Poverty and economic growth in Nigeria: Issues and Policies. Journal of
Poverty, 21(1), 61-79.
Eboh, F. E. & Uma, K. E. (2010). Rural infrastructural development: A panacea for poverty
alleviation in Nigeria. African Journal of Professional Research in Human Development,
6(3), 39-45.
Eniang, E. B. (1977). Population Growth and Economic Growth Performance in Nigeria (1981–
2014). Turkish Economic Review, 3(1), 143-159.
Fosu, A. K. (2015). Growth, inequality and poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa: Recent progress in a
global context. Oxford Development Studies, 43(1), 44-59.
Genyi, M. E. (2007). Poverty, good governance and development process in Nigeria. Paper
presented at the Abuja International Conference on Arts and Humanity between 3rd – 7th
November at the University of Abuja.
Gradstein, M. &Kaganovich, M. (2004). Aging population and education finance. Public Econ
88(9), 2469–2485.
Jenkins, G. M. & Box G. E. P. (1970). Time series analysis, forecasting and control. San Francisco,
Holding-Day.
Julien, B. (2009). Life expectancy is essentially affected by wealth and education: Revising the
retirement age in social security is dangerous. Older Women’s Economic Security Task
Force. www.socialsecuritymatters.org.
Kabir, M. (2008). Determinants of life expectancy in developing countries. Journal of
Development Area, 41:185–204.
Kpelai, S. T. (2013). An assessment of national poverty eradication programme on wealth creation
in Benue State. European Journal of Business and Management, 5(19), 167-180.
Maestas, N., Mullen, K. J., & Powell, D. (2016). The effect of population aging on economic
growth, the labor force and productivity. Working Paper, 1-37.
Moges, A. G. (2013). Economic growth, inequality and poverty in Developing Countries: Policy
issues and challenges. International Journal of Economic Policy Studies, 8, 41–66.
Mohd, S. N. A., Ishak, A. A., & Selvaratnam, D. P. (2021). Aging population’s impact on
economic growth in Malaysia from 1981 to 2019: evidence from an autoregressive
distributed
lag
approach.
Frontier
of
Public
Health,
9,
931554-931563.
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.73155
Nakabashi, L. (2018). Poverty and economic development: Evidence for the Brazilian states.
Economia 19, 445–458.
National Bureau of Statistics (2021). Quarterly gross domestic product report. NBS Press.
Nuruddeen, T. & Ibrahim, S. (2014). An empirical study on the relationship between poverty,
inequality and economic growth in Nigeria. Journal of Economic and Sustainable
Development, 5(26), 20-25.
Nwosa, P. I., & Ehinomen, C. (2020). Inequality, poverty and economic growth in Nigeria. Euro
Economica, Special Issue 2(39), 85-93.
Rogers, G. B. (1979).Income and inequality as determinants of mortality: An international cross-
section analysis. Popul Studies 33, 343–351.
Sarker, S., Khan, A., & Mannan, M. M. (2016). Urban population and economic growth: South
Asia perspective. European Journal of Government and Economics (EJGE), 5(1), 64-75,
Song, S., (2013). Demographic changes and economic growth: Empirical evidence from Asia.
Honors Projects, Paper No.121. http://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/econ_honproj/121.
Todaro, M.P.& Smith, S.C. (2015). Economic development. Pearson education limited, Edinburgh
gate, Harlow CM 20 2JE
World Bank Group (2020). World Development Report 2019: The Changing Nature of Work.
World Bank.
World Population (2021). GDP ranked by countries 2021. http://world population
review.com/countries/countries.
World Population Prospects. (2017). Overall total population – World population prospects: The
2017 revision. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population

DOWNLOAD PDF

---

Back