The Impact of Religion on Fertility Rates Across the Geo-Political Zones in Nigeria

This master’s thesis looks at the relationship between fertility rates and religion across the geopolitical zones in Nigeria. It documents Muslim/Christian and Non-religious differences in the number of children ever born by women across Nigeria. It is essential to know how the future trajectory of fertility will be affected by the religion composition of the population in Nigeria. Religious belief and practices affect fertility rates by determining the age of marriage, use of contraceptives, abortion practice and the age of sexual initiation. The first chapter of the thesis introduces Nigeria as a country, its history, and size. It also looks at the religious and ethnic diversity of Nigeria and its youthful population and fertility rates over its existence as a country. The second chapter describes findings from available research on theories about how religion affects fertility patterns and how religious institutions place an important value on family and children, alongside other fertility-focused doctrines, which encourages females to play more family roles. The third chapter serves as an overview of the method of data collection and the mathematical models the thesis is based on. Quantitative data from the 2013 National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) was used. The fourth chapter of the thesis presents the results of the regression from the models built showing the variation across the geopolitical regions and the country in general. The fifth chapter discusses the result of the regression and highlights the effect of both religion and education on women in every aspect of the society in Nigeria. The sixth chapter concludes by showing that although education has an unmistakable influence on women’s fertility, other factors such as religion also play a significant role in women’s fertility across Nigeria.