ABUJA, NIGERIA — A viral infographic circulating on social media platforms claiming to rank countries with the lowest quality of life has been exposed as a manipulated piece of political propaganda.
The graphic, widely shared alongside campaign messaging for the upcoming elections, falsely asserts that Nigeria sits at the absolute bottom of Numbeo’s international index with a score of 0.0.
The Fact Check
Data from the official Numbeo Quality of Life Index reveals that while Nigeria does rank at the bottom of the list—sitting 89th out of 89 surveyed nations due to low purchasing power—its assigned index value is not zero. The actual score recorded in the global database stands at 15.6.
The viral image purposefully stripped away the legitimate scores of all 11 listed countries. This alteration was designed to create an exaggerated visual impact, framing the data to suggest a complete collapse of standard living metrics across the country.
Origin of the “0.0” Score
The “0.0” metric used in the propaganda was pulled out of context from a different comparative section of the database. Numbeo’s statistical model uses New York City as a baseline score of 100 for global comparison.
Due to severe local inflation, the platform’s algorithm rounds the relative purchasing power index for Lagos to 0.0 when directly measured against New York City. Political interests captured this specific data quirk to misrepresent the index score for the entire country.
Economic Realities
While the graphic itself is edited, the underlying socioeconomic strain remains a pressing issue for the populace. Validated economic portals show that a harsh cost-of-living crisis continues to affect millions of households across the nation:
- Poverty Levels: World Bank records indicate that over 60 percent of the population currently lives below the poverty line.
- Food Inflation: Skyrocketing prices for basic staples have forced vulnerable families to spend up to 70 percent of their income on food.
- Health Indicators: United Nations tracking places national life expectancy among the lowest globally, averaging roughly 54.9 years.
