Levels, Patterns and Trends of Male Fertility in Sub-Saharan Africa. What can we learn from Demographic and Health Surveys?

Levels, patterns and trends of male fertility are little documented in sub-Saharan Africa. Most existing studies have been conducted at the local level, and are relatively old. Yet, data collected in DHS contain valuable information on male fertility, and have largely been untapped. The objectives of this paper are (1) to evaluate to what extent the DHS data in sub-Saharan Africa can be used to measure levels, patterns and trends of male fertility, and (2) to provide a broad overview of male fertility levels, patterns and trends in Africa. Three methods are compared: the own children method, the crisscross method, and the date of last birth method. Results suggest that the own children method is the most appropriate to measure male fertility in a wide range of countries and periods. Preliminary results show three broad patterns of male fertility. They also show declines in male fertility in several sub-Saharan African countries.