Educational boundaries explain strength and variation in global fertility convergence

This paper shows that the level and timing of fertility are converging strongly over different measures of educational attainment using 65 years of data from 146 countries. Global convergence patterns are primarily driven by high-income societies, while sub-Saharan Africa is the world region that is...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2024-11, Vol.14 (1), p.27323-9, Article 27323
Main Authors: Wu, Hanbo, Pesando, Luca Maria
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/477/2811
704/158/1745
704/844/2787
Africa South of the Sahara
Birth Rate - trends
Births
Convergence
Datasets
Demography
Education
Educational attainment
Educational gradients
Educational Status
Female
Females
Fertility
Fertility - physiology
Human capital
Humanities and Social Sciences
Humans
Mortality
multidisciplinary
Population growth
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Socioeconomic Factors
Time series
Women
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Summary:This paper shows that the level and timing of fertility are converging strongly over different measures of educational attainment using 65 years of data from 146 countries. Global convergence patterns are primarily driven by high-income societies, while sub-Saharan Africa is the world region that is converging most slowly, if not converging at all. Most importantly, levels of education matter heavily for explaining strength and variation in global fertility convergence, with two intersecting educational gradients suggesting: (i) stronger convergence over tertiary education followed, in turn, by secondary and primary; (ii) stronger convergence over education completed relative to education attended . Our findings provide important insights for addressing key challenges in global development and demography, and for informing policymakers as they evaluate the suitability of specific educational policies aimed at further narrowing inequalities between societies—such as supporting higher education as well as the successful completion of targeted educational cycles.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-024-78735-2