Influence of Urbanization On Fertility In Northern Nigeria (A Case Study of Niger State)

Sub Saharan Africa has been a hot spot for high fertility rates in the world with an average of five to seven children given birth to per woman within her reproductive lifetime at the prevailing age specific birth rate. This... [ view full abstract ]

Sub Saharan Africa has been a hot spot for high fertility rates in the world with an average of five to seven children given birth to per woman within her reproductive lifetime at the prevailing age specific birth rate. This age bracket usually falls between 15 to 49 years. The World Bank observed that 37% of Sub Saharan Africans lived in urban centers in 2014. Though fertility rates in the region are gradually dropping, urbanization rates have been on the rise; thus this needed investigation of urban influence on fertility rates.

The data used was the most recent socio-economic data available from Niger state in North Central Nigeria. It was obtained from the Niger State Bureau of Statistics Socio-economic Survey for year 2014 at the National Bureau of Statistics, Abuja, Nigeria. A hierarchical index was developed and used to determine how urban or rural a Local Government Area was. This relied on building material of the house, availability of electricity, daily internet access, television access, and toilet facility availability in households. The fertility rates were grouped into four; 0 to 2 children, 3 to 5 children, 6 to 8 children and 9 and above children. The calculated urban index was then correlated to each of these fertility groups. An overlay analysis was also carried out and mapped for geovisualization to improve result communication.

The result showed a decreasing weak positive correlation from 0 to 2 children up to 6 to 8 children at 0.085 and 0.001 respectively. At 9 and above children a negative correlation of -0.216 was obtained.


KEY WORDS: Total fertility rate, urbanization, hierarchical index, correlation