Understanding income inequality in rural southwest Nigeria: A decomposition analysis of population subgroups and household welfare

The study looked at how income inequality affects household welfare in forest-dependent communities. The research was broken into income differences in various population subgroups, including age, gender, education, marital status, household size, credit access, asset ownership, land acquisition, and forest dependence. Data were collected from households in Ogun, Osun and Ondo states, which have high concentrations of forests. The findings showed that income inequality was more pronounced within certain subgroups, such as those defined by gender, age, marital status, education level and household size, rather than between them. The key driver of inequality within these subgroups included limited access to credit, assets and land acquisition. The study also found significant disparities between different forest-dependent income classes, highlighting the need to support low-and moderate-income forest households. The research recommended policies that target income generation within specific population subgroups, promote access to credit and productive assets, and support livelihood diversification to reduce inequality and improve household welfare. Keywords: Gini coefficient, income inequality, forest-dependent households, decomposition analysis, household welfare