The Demography of Human Capital Formation in Sub-Saharan Africa, 1950-2100

Autor(en)

Claudia Reiter, Anne Valia Goujon, Samir KC

Abstrakt

The education diffusion process that started mainly after colonial times in the Global South has been delayed in Sub-Saharan Africa. Moreover, population growth is rapid and affecting the potential of many countries to achieve education for all and the Sustainable Development Goals regarding access to quality primary and secondary education. Whether and when these goals can be achieved depends highly on the education investments that will be made. This article first describes the changes in absolute numbers and share of levels of educational attainment from 1950 to 2015 in 50 Sub-Saharan African countries, comparing across countries and regions, generations, and gender. In a second part, we explore the potential future of levels of education and its impact on population size and structure (by considering fertility and mortality differentials by level of education) for the same countries according to several scenarios that have been developed up to 2100. The results suggest that in 2015, the majority of the working age population still had a low education (primary or less) in 40 of the countries in the sample. Only a few countries seem to have adopted a pace of education expansion able to take them out of the low education trap.

Organisation(en)

Institut für Demografie

Externe Organisation(en)

Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital

Seiten

591-615

Anzahl der Seiten

25

Publikationsdatum

2022

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

504006 Demographie, 504005 Bildungssoziologie

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/1b007792-203e-4a36-9de2-ae6f005e9dcf