The relative importance of women’s education on fertility desires in sub-Saharan Africa: A multilevel analysis

Autor(en)
Endale Kebede, Erich Striessnig, Anne Goujon
Abstrakt

Lowering desired family size is a necessary precondition for fertility declines in high-fertility settings. Although accumulated evidence links socio-economic developments to changing fertility desires, little research has disentangled the relative importance of key socio-economic determinants. Combining individual- and community-level data from Demographic and Health Surveys in 34 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries, we compare the relative role of different socio-economic factors on fertility desires at the individual, community, and country levels. Results show that at the individual level, women’s education has a stronger effect than household wealth and area of residence. The high levels of reported desired family size in rural parts of SSA are mainly a consequence of relatively lower levels of education. The relative impact of women’s education is even stronger at the community level. Our findings are robust to alternative measures of fertility preferences and strengthen previous findings regarding the relationship between fertility and women’s education.

Organisation(en)
Institut für Demografie, Institut für Geographie und Regionalforschung
Externe Organisation(en)
Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital
Journal
Population Studies
Band
76
Seiten
137-156
Anzahl der Seiten
20
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/00324728.2021.1892170
Publikationsdatum
03-2021
Peer-reviewed
Ja
ÖFOS 2012
504006 Demographie
Schlagwörter
ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete
Demography, History
Link zum Portal
https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/de/publications/the-relative-importance-of-womens-education-on-fertility-desires-in-subsaharan-africa-a-multilevel-analysis(acd6b27d-7f1e-4910-8623-6a7754da7612).html