Nigeria’s Most Developed States: 10 Metrics That Reveal the Real Leaders

Is Lagos really Nigeria’s most developed state?The answer depends on what you measure.

GDP alone does not tell the full story. A truly developed state should combine economic strength with wealth, human development, healthcare, poverty reduction and the ability to provide a good quality of life.

Here are 10 important development metrics and the top five performers based on the latest comparable data available.

1. Largest State Economy — GDP

GDP (Gross Domestic Product) measures the total value of goods and services produced within a state.

According to the World Bank's 2025 Nigeria Development Update, 2023 state GDP showed a huge gap between Nigeria's economic centres.

Lagos alone accounted for 11.7% of Nigeria's national economy in 2023. (World Bank)

What it means: GDP measures economic size, not necessarily how wealthy ordinary residents are.

2. GDP Per Capita — Economic Output Per Person

GDP per capita divides GDP by population. It provides a better indication of the economic output associated with each resident.

The World Bank found that FCT, Lagos and Kwara were far above states such as Borno, Zamfara and Jigawa on GDP per capita. (World Bank)

Important: GDP per capita is not the same as average salary or disposable income.

3. Human Development — HDI

The Human Development Index (HDI) combines health, education and standard of living. It is therefore one of the best broad measures of development.

The figures are from the 2023 state-level HDI ranking based on the Radboud/Global Data Lab methodology. (Wikipedia)

What it means: A state can have a smaller economy but still perform strongly in human development.

4. Internally Generated Revenue — IGR

IGR measures how much revenue a state generates internally through taxes, fees and government agencies.

It is an important indicator of the size and strength of a state's formal economy and its ability to finance public services.

Top 5 in 2023

The 36 states and FCT generated ₦2.43 trillion in IGR in 2023. Lagos alone generated about one-third of the total. (National Bureau of Statistics)

5. Lowest Multidimensional Poverty

Poverty is one of the most important measures of whether economic development is actually reaching residents.

The NBS Multidimensional Poverty Index considers several forms of deprivation rather than income alone.

Lowest poverty rates

These figures come from the NBS 2022 Multidimensional Poverty Index. (National Bureau of Statistics)

This is a good example of why GDP alone cannot determine development. Rivers and Imo perform much better on this measure than their overall economic ranking might suggest.

6. Life Expectancy — Health & Living Conditions

Life expectancy estimates how long a newborn would live if current mortality conditions remained the same. It reflects healthcare, living conditions, nutrition, sanitation and other factors.

Top 5

The ranking is from the State of States dataset using 2020 estimates and NBS/DHS data. (Kingmakers)

7. Dollar Millionaires — Concentration of Private Wealth

The number of US-dollar millionaires measures the concentration of high-net-worth individuals.

Nigeria had an estimated 7,200 dollar millionaires in 2025, according to the Africa Wealth Report. However, reliable state-by-state millionaire data are not publicly available. (Henley & Partners)

For cities, Lagos ranked among Africa's wealthiest cities with approximately 3,600 millionaires, 12 centi-millionaires and two billionaires in 2025. (Henley & Partners)

Therefore, it would be misleading to invent a state-level top five. Lagos is clearly Nigeria's dominant wealth centre, but comparable figures for FCT, Rivers, Delta and Ogun are not publicly published in the same dataset.

8. Purchasing Power — What Residents Can Actually Buy

Purchasing power measures how much goods and services people can afford with their income after considering prices.

This is different from GDP per capita.

For example, a resident earning ₦1 million in one state may have greater purchasing power than someone earning ₦1.5 million in a much more expensive state.

A proper state ranking requires comparable income and cost-of-living data, so it should not be confused with GDP per capita.

9. Environment & Clean Air

A developed state should also provide residents with clean air, safe water, effective waste management, green spaces and protection from environmental hazards.

Important indicators include:

• PM2.5 and other air pollutants
• Waste management
• Water quality
• Flooding
• Sanitation
• Green space
• Deforestation and ecological protection

Unlike GDP and IGR, Nigeria currently lacks a single comprehensive, consistently updated state-level environmental index that allows a reliable national top-five ranking across all these factors.

This is an area where better data would significantly improve Nigeria's development measurement.

10. Infrastructure & Quality of Life

Finally, development should translate into everyday living standards.

This includes:

Roads + electricity + water + healthcare + education + housing + transport + internet + security + sanitation.

A state may have a huge GDP but still struggle with congestion, pollution or housing costs. Another state may have a smaller economy but provide residents with a better quality of life.

So, Which State Is Nigeria's Most Developed?

There is no single winner across every metric.

Lagos dominates economic size, IGR, business, finance, technology and private wealth.

FCT leads GDP per capita and has a strong concentration of high-income economic activity.

Ogun performs strongly in industrialisation and life expectancy.

Rivers performs exceptionally well on multidimensional poverty and has a major oil and industrial economy.

Anambra and Imo demonstrate that strong human-development outcomes do not necessarily require having one of Nigeria's five largest economies.

The Bigger Picture

The best way to measure development is therefore not:

"Which state is richest?"

but:

"Which state combines economic prosperity, human development, healthcare, education, infrastructure, security, environmental quality and purchasing power?"

That is the difference between measuring economic size and measuring development.

Source: National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), World Bank, Global Data Lab/Radboud University, State of States and Henley & Partners/New World Wealth. Data years vary by indicator because the latest comparable state-level datasets are not all from the same year. (World Bank)