Nigeria has been ranked 7th in the world for helping strangers, according to the UN World Happiness Report 2025, a result that highlights the country’s strong culture of interpersonal generosity despite broader social and institutional fragility.
The report, produced by the University of Oxford’s Wellbeing Research Centre in partnership with Gallup and the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network, evaluates 147 countries based on self-reported well-being and prosocial behaviours such as donating, volunteering, and helping strangers.
While Nigeria ranks near the top globally for acts of spontaneous kindness, its overall well-being ranking tells a more sobering story.
Nigeria is placed 105th out of 147 countries in the 2025 World Happiness Report, firmly in the lower tier globally for life satisfaction and subjective well-being.
Informal generosity, institutional fragility
The contrast between Nigeria’s high generosity ranking and its lower overall happiness score reflects a broader trend across much of sub-Saharan Africa — one where social capital is strong, but public trust is weak.
When asked about the likelihood of a lost wallet being returned, Nigeria ranked:
These findings indicate that while Nigerians are willing to assist others personally, confidence in public institutions, particularly law enforcement, remains extremely low.
The report attributes this disparity to structural weaknesses in governance and public accountability. In such environments, people often bypass formal institutions, relying instead on community networks and personal initiative to provide social support.
This pattern is not unique to Nigeria. Several African nations show similar dynamics. Kenya ranks 4th globally for helping strangers, Liberia 2nd, and Sierra Leone 5th, yet all perform poorly in expected wallet returns and overall happiness rankings.
“These countries demonstrate strong face-to-face generosity in the absence of reliable public systems,” the report states. “Where institutional structures are weak, helping strangers likely becomes the most direct and effective form of benevolence.”
For Nigeria, this also explains the gap between its ranking for helping strangers (7th) and its position in charitable donations (45th). The preference is clearly tilted toward direct, immediate support over formal giving.
Despite its challenges, Nigeria’s high ranking for interpersonal kindness reflects a resilient and responsive social culture. Yet, the report notes that relying on human goodwill to fill the gaps left by institutions is not sustainable.
“Societies that rank high for kindness but low for institutional trust may struggle to scale social support beyond immediate, individual interactions,” said Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, one of the report’s editors.
In the absence of functioning systems, acts of kindness do much of the heavy lifting, a reality that is both heartening and troubling.
While Nigeria’s compassion at the grassroots level is a strength, its position at 105th in global happiness rankings signals that deeper systemic issues continue to erode overall life satisfaction.
While Nigeria’s compassion at the grassroots level is a strength, its position at 105th in global happiness rankings signals that deeper systemic issues continue to erode overall life satisfaction.
For policymakers, the findings offer a dual message: protect and nurture the social bonds that keep communities afloat, but also prioritise reforms that rebuild trust in law enforcement, charitable institutions, and public governance.
Without such efforts, Nigeria may continue to rank highly in kindness while trailing in the very systems needed to translate generosity into lasting well-being.