| Fertility compression in Niger: A study of fertility change by parity (1977–2011) |
| Authors: |
Thomas Spoorenberg, and Hamidou Issaka Maga |
| Source: |
Demographic Research, 39(24): 685-700; DOI: 10.4054/DemRes.2018.39.24 |
| Topic(s): |
Fertility
Parity
|
| Country: |
Africa
Niger
|
| Published: |
OCT 2018 |
| Abstract: |
BACKGROUND
Very few studies have analyzed the fertility change in Niger – a country where the total
fertility rate has remained high and stable over the last decades.
OBJECTIVE
This study looks at the fertility change in Niger from a parity perspective to consider if
reproductive behaviors are revealing some ongoing changes under the apparent stability
of the total fertility rate.
METHODS
Using birth history data from four representative sample surveys, parity progression
ratios and mean birth intervals were computed, covering three decades of fertility
change in Niger.
RESULTS
Confirming the stability of the level of fertility, the results show little change in the
progression to the successive parities. Yet, although women in Niger still end their
reproductive lives with a similar number of children, the birth intervals indicate that the
onset of childbearing and the progressions to the successive birth orders have been
progressively delayed.
CONCLUSIONS
Over the last three decades, Nigerien women have continued to manage to bear a rather
stable average number of children in their lifetimes, compressing their fertility to an
ever-reducing number of reproductive years. |
| Web: |
https://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol39/24/39-24.pdf |
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