A multilevel analysis of the predictive effects of internal migration and region of residence on women’s empowerment in Nigeria

BACKGROUND: Despite growing research interest on the influences of migration and regions of residence on human behaviors, studies on the influences of migration and region of residence on women empowerment especially in sub-Saharan Africa are lacking. Thus, this study investigated migration status and region of residence as correlates of women empowerment in Nigeria. METHODS: The study utilized data of 37,762 women aged 15-49 years from the 2024 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey. The outcome variables were indices of household decision making, financial decision-making, sexual right, experience of wife beating, and tolerance of wife beating while the contextual variables were migration status and region of residence. Analyses were carried out using descriptive statistics, chi-square tests and multilevel logistic regression models. RESULTS: More women (78%) reported good domestic violence index, while 67% were involved in good sexual rights index and 38% of the women indicated good household decision making index. The full model indicated significantly lower odds of women being involved in household decision making (OR = 0.90, p < 0.05), financial decision making (OR = 0.35, p < 0.000) and the experience of wife beating (OR = 0.02, p < 0.000). On the other hand, good their sexual right (OR = 1.05, p > 0.05) and tolerance of wife beating (OR = 1.28, p < 0.05) indicated increased odds. All the regions with the exception of the North East region were significantly associated with increased likelihoods of household decision, financial decision and domestic violence indices. Rural non-migrants, urban non-migrants, as well as rural-urban and urban-urban migrants were significantly associated with increased likelihood of low tolerance of wife beating index. Other covariates which significantly increased the odds of women empowerment in at least three of the outcome indices were higher education levels, higher education levels of spouses, being of Igbo ethnicity and regions of residence. CONCLUSION: The study has shown that contextual-level factors of migration status and region of residence significantly influenced women empowerment indices. The findings demonstrate that regional inequalities and migration dynamics are central to understanding women's empowerment in Nigeria.