Socio-Economic Factors Influencing Fertility Levels and Differ entials in Ethiopia: The Case of Shewa Region
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Date
1991-10
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The main objectives of the present study are to determine the
level of fertility on the one hand, and to examine the extent of
the relationships between some selected socio-economic factors
and fertility on the other, in Shewa region of Ethiopia. To this
end, a 5 per cent stratified simple random sample of women aged
15 to 49 years is drawn from the 1984 population and Housing
Census of Shewa region. The sample consists of all the relevant
socio-economic and demographic information of 80528 eligible
women.
In the thesis, the sampling design is discussed, the reported
age and fertility data are evaluated, the relationships between
and socio-economic factors and fertility are examined; and the
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relative importance of each of the soc io-economic variables
considered are determined. Also summary of the main findings and
their policy implications are presented.
The evaluation indicates that the fertility data are subject to
under-reporting/omission of births and hence the Brass P/F ratio
method and the relational Gompertz model are employed to adjust
the reported fertility estimates. The new fertility estimat es
are appraised and show that the level of fertility in s hewa as
well as in its urban and rural areas is quite high. According to
these estimates , women in total and rural shewa bear, on the
average, more than 7 children before the end of their
reproductive period (i.e 45-49 years); while the corresponding
figure in urban areas is about 6.5. In order to examine the relationships between socio-economic
factors and fertility in the region, three procedures:
univariate, bivariate and multivariate ana lyses are adopted. In
all the procedures the mean number of children ever-born is used
as a dependent variable and the socio-economic factors as
independent variables . On the whole, the findings indicate a
negative r es idence and fertility;
education
relationship between urban
and fertility; economic activity (occupation) and
fertility; and a positive relationship between duration of
continuous residence of migrants and fertil i ty . The findings
a l so suggest fertil ity differentials by migration status , marital
status , province of residence, religion and ethnic ity . It is ,
however, observed in the multivariat e analysis that, when the
effects of the specified variables are held constant, the range
in ferti lity differentials is reduced. This, therefore , suggests
that much of the fertility differentials could be accounted for
by differences in the socio-economic and demographic
c haracteristics of the women under study . The analysis further
reveals that among the s elected predictor variables , marital
status, province of r esidence , migration and ethnicity are the
most important factors accounting for the greatest proportion of
the variance in fertility. Education, occupation , urban/ rural
residence and religion are also important but to a lesser extent.
Finally, the policy implications of the findings are discussed
and recommendations for immediate intervention are forwarded.
Moreover, a detailed study of the relationships between social ,
economic, cultural and demographic factors and fertility in
Ethiopia is recommended .
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Socio-Economic