Levels, Patterns and Trends of Male Fertility in Sub-Saharan Africa. What Can We Learn from Demographic and Health Surveys?

Bruno D. Schoumaker, Université Catholique de Louvain

The objective of this paper is to evaluate to what extent - and with which methods - the DHS data in sub-Saharan Africa can be used to measure levels, patterns and trends of male fertility. Three methods (two indirect methods and one direct method) that can be used to compute recent age specific fertility rates from DHS data are compared. Comparisons suggest the Own children method is the most promising approach with existing data. We show that the male TFR and mean age at fatherhood vary widely ins Sub-saharan Africa. Three types of patterns of male fertility are found, corresponding to some extent to regional patterns. Preliminary results also show decrease of male fertility in some countries.