Fertility Levels and Differentials in Informal Settlements in South Africa: Evidence from the 2001 South African Population Census.

Date
2006-11-13T13:28:09Z
Authors
Mpezo, Muanzu
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Abstract
Previous studies on fertility in South Africa have mostly focused on the analysis of fertility trends, levels and differentials at the national level and have argued that socioeconomic development affects the national fertility level. This study examines the fertility levels in South Africa informal settlements with a view of examining whether there is any fertility variation between national and informal settlements. Data from the South Africa 2001 Census 10 per cent sample were used. Three levels of analysis were conducted. One examines fertility differentials. Two, multiple regression technique was applied to identify important socioeconomic factors of fertility in South African informal settlements and finally direct and indirect estimation of fertility was done. There is no difference in fertility levels between national and informal settlements. Fertility of 3 children per woman, in informal settlements is close to the national figure of 2.9. It is also shown that there is an inverse relationship between fertility and education and income, in South Africa informal settlements. Multivariate analysis shows that only about 6% of the variation in the dependent variable can be explained by the socioeconomic factors considered in the study. Fertility in the informal settlements was highest amongst women with higher education, among married women, and among those unemployed. In addition, the fertility of Christian women, and those women dwelling in households without radio and television was high. It is found that there is no difference between fertility levels at the national and informal settlements levels.
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faculty of Humanities School of Social sciences 0411881k muanzu@yahoo.fr
Keywords
Fertility, informal settlements, Census, socioeconomic, study
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