FERTILITY, ETHNICITY, AND EDUCATION IN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
Population studies
31
Issue: 1
(02 - 2017)
In the mid-1950s, a massive survey in the present Democratic Republic of the Congo revealed sharp
ethnic fertility differentials. With the vast majority of women never having been to school, women’s
education was not, then, pertinent to fertility. Over the succeeding decades, women increasingly went
to school, especially in Kinshasa. This led to lower fertility in the capital, particularly for women with
secondary schooling. At the same time, fertility differences by ethnic group diminished in the city. This
paper examines fertility differences by education and by ethnicity in the entire country, distinguishing
Kinshasa, other urban places, and rural areas. We find that, over all, the increased importance for
fertility of education and reduced importance of ethnicity witnessed in Kinshasa is also apparent for the
entire country. Regarding the sources of ethnic differences in fertility, the findings support the social
characteristics hypothesis in cosmopolitan Kinshasa and the cultural hypothesis elsewhere.
Keywords: Fertility, fertility differentials, ethnicity, education, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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