Schooling's Fertility Effect Greatest in Low-Literacy, High-Fertility Societies

Abstract

This article gives a summary of the findings from a comparative study among 26 developing countries on the effect of education on fertility. Analysis is based on data from Demographic and Health Surveys. Findings indicate that literacy was lowest in sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa. Only in Botswana Ghana Kenya and Zimbabwe was the mean level of female education greater than 4 years. Asia and Latin America had high literacy levels but some countries in these regions still had high illiteracy levels. Fertility differences between women with no education and women with 10 or more years of education varied widely by country. Education had the greatest effect on fertility in Latin America and North Africa. In Asian countries with strong family planning programs education had weak effects. Differences in fertility between women with no education and women with 4-6 years of schooling in sub-Saharan Africa were moderate but high between women with no education and 10 or more years of schooling. The impact of education on fertility is manifested through a delayed age at marriage. Marriage age differences relating to educational level varied widely in sub-Saharan Africa. Multiple classification analysis reveals that sub-Saharan Africa had the highest ideal family sizes and the greatest differences in fertility between uneducated and the most educated women. In the other regions family size preferences averaged 3-4 children. The difference in preferences between the least and most educated women was small. Actual fertility exceeded wanted fertility in all countries with the exception of Mali. Education had the greatest influence on contraceptive use in Latin America. In Asia the differences in contraceptive use by educational level ranged from 7% in Sri Lanka to 34% in Indonesia. Researchers hypothesized that the effect of education on contraceptive use decreased as contraceptive prevalence increased. Multivariate analysis reveals that countries that had attained high levels of schooling over time were countries where the effect of education on fertility was substantial.