Fertility Differentials in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Review of Determinants

Oluwaseyi Somefun, University of the Witwatersrand

Although fertility has been declining in some African countries for over two decades now, it still remains high in some others.The decline in the family size is an important step towards population stabilization in the region. The status of family size is related to various demographic, socio-economic, cultural factors and attitude towards use of family planning methods. This paper is an attempt to examine the demographic, socio-economic, and cultural factors influencing fertility differentials in four selected sub-Saharan African countries using the most recent Demographic and Health surveys. We use the Demographic and Health Survey from four countries in SSA to examine the differentials in the determinants of fertility for Malawi [Southern Africa], Nigeria [West Africa], Uganda [East Africa] and Rwanda [Central Africa]. To address the study objective, poisson regression analysis was performed on 23,020 (Malawi), 38,948 (Nigeria), 8,674 (Uganda) and 13, 671 (Rwanda) women of reproductive aged15-49. Results were presented as odds ratios (OR).