Paper short abstract:

The paper uses quantitative data from the 2006 Demographic and Health Survey to better understand the reasons of the very high fertility of women and men in Niger. We look at fertility differences and compare characteristics of marriage, reproduction and sexuality across ethnic groups and places of residence.

Paper long abstract:

Fertility in Niger is among the highest: the mean number of children per women was 7.4 in 1992, 7.5 in 1998 and 7.1 in 2006. Few studies attempted to explain the sustained fertility to high levels. Why does fertility in Niger remain so high? We use quantitative data on women and men from the 2006 Demographic and Health Survey and compute parity progression ratios. We hypothesize that fertility is higher when individuals live in rural areas at the moment of the survey. Secondly, fertility levels differ across ethnic groups (cultural factors expressed in terms of marriage and value of children may explain some of those differences). Thirdly, a higher level of education is associated to lower fertility levels of women and men. In particular, our results show significant differences between Haoussa, and other groups (Djerma, Touareg, Peul and others). Fertility differences between Haoussa and Djerma may be due to the greatest propensity to postpone marriage among Djerma who live near the capital city. In contrast, Haoussa are more conservative; girls' early sex and marriage as well as school-leaving is common. As poverty increases, men use religion to blame western values and systems, including family planning (FP). In contrast Djerma tolerate FP but do not use it effectively. Haoussa are sedentary while Touareg are a nomadic people. Finally the difference of men fertility between Haoussa and Peul could be a consequence of the practice of polygamy for Haoussa, that is quite rare for the nomadic Peul.