Comparative analysis of rural households' wellbeing in selected states of the Niger Delta zone of Nigeria

The wellbeing of a household is determined by the level of utility accessed by individual members of that household. This study examined the level of household wellbeing in rural communities of selected Niger Delta states. Multistage sampling procedure was used to select respondents for the study. A total of 454 respondents were selected from the four sampled local government areas of Akwa Ibom (Ibeno and Ibesikpo Asutan) and Abia state (Ukwa west and Ikwuano) oil and non oil communities. Quantitative data was collected using interview schedule, while qualitative data was collected through focus group discussions and in-depth interviews. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. About 37.4 (OPC) and 26.8% (NOPC) households always had access to material living conditions, while access to quality of life were 46.6 (OPC) and 38.9% (NOPC. Most severe constraint faced by households in OPC was poor access to poverty alleviation programmes (422), and unavailability of credit in NOPC (483). The result also indicated that majority of the households in both communities had low levels of wellbeing and consequently fell below the community poverty line. The study recommends that efforts to improve household wellbeing in the study area should focus on improving agricultural activities as it was discovered that these activities were still the dominant livelihood activities in the communities. These farm activities form the base for household food supply, capital for other livelihood activities and overall wellbeing.