Author: Kabiru Salami
Volume: 58 Issue No:1 Year:2016

Abstract: Most studies on urban housing in Nigerian cities have intrinsically addressed its locational advantage to social amenities and its influence on social capital and the well-being of its inhabitants, including the growing population of the elderly. Limited studies profile how housing quality has influenced the health of the elderly in Nigeria. Analysis of population and housing census priority data of the UN Habitat 2014 and National Population Commission 2010 revealed that more than half (55.4%) of the houses in Lagos city have one room exclusively for sleeping, almost four (76.9%) in five households in Abuja have a maximum of two bedrooms and about half (50.3%) of households in Kano city did not have any bedroom. Almost one-quarter (24.1%) of houses in Onitsha have poor sources of water for domestic use, while slightly below half (48.4%) of households in Ibadan city and more than half (55.4%) of households in Ilorin, Kwara State disposed solid waste indiscriminately around their houses. This imbalance in the distribution of housing and housing facilities evident among households in Nigerian cities requires accelerated efforts in the era of growing population of the elderly in Nigeria. This study concludes that housing structure and how rooms and their facilities are shared have great potential for influencing the health of the elderly, who are a vulnerable group.

JEL classification: I12, I31, J14, O19, R21, R31