Women in Nigeria spend 21% of their day—nearly five hours—on unpaid domestic and care work, while men spend just 4.1%, or about one hour, according to the Nigeria Time Use Survey 2024 released by the National Bureau of Statistics.
This first national survey measuring how individuals allocate time highlights a persistent gender gap in household responsibilities across both urban and rural areas.
On average, Nigerians aged 15 and above spend about 12.5% of their day (roughly three hours) on unpaid domestic and care work. However, the burden falls disproportionately on women.
In rural areas, women devote 24.1% of their day—almost six hours—to unpaid care and domestic tasks, compared to 3.7% for rural men. In urban centres, women spend 19.8% of their time on such activities, while men allocate 4.3%.
The NBS noted that women spend 15.1% of their day on unpaid domestic services and 5.9% on unpaid care services, significantly higher than men, who spend 2.9% and 1.2% respectively. Overall, women spend five times more hours than men on unpaid domestic and care work across surveyed states.
Conversely, men dominate in System of National Accounts (SNA) productive activities, spending an average of 372.6 minutes daily compared to women’s 234 minutes. Women, however, spend substantially more time on non-SNA activities.
The Bureau said the findings reflect deeply rooted gender roles and call for targeted investments in care infrastructure and reforms aimed at redistributing unpaid work, in line with Nigeria’s commitment to Sustainable Development Goal 5 on gender equality.
