From Science Daily

A recent stall in declining fertility rates in Africa is at least partially due to disruptions in women’s education, according to a study published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“The stalls in fertility decline have been a puzzle to researchers for many years since Africa was expected to undergo the ‘demographic transition,’ where socioeconomic development leads first to reduced death rates, and after some lag, to reduced birth rates,” says IIASA researcher Endale Kebede, who led the study.

Starting in the 1980’s, it appeared that many African countries were on the onset of fertility decline. But in the 1990s and early 2000s, some sub-Saharan African countries saw a leveling-off of this decline. A few countries, such as Kenya and the Cote d’Ivoire, actually saw increasing fertility rates for some periods of time.

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