Recent evidence suggests that women in high-income countries desired to delay or forgo childbearing due to COVID-19, yet there remains insufficient evidence of COVID-19’s impact on fertility desires in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). We examined how quantum and tempo of fertility intentions changed in the first year of COVID-19 and assessed the impact of economic insecurity and sociodemographic characteristics on these changes in SSA. We used longitudinal data collected among 14,053 women from Kenya, Burkina Faso, two provinces in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Kinshasa and Kongo Central), and two states in Nigeria (Kano and Lagos).
March 15, 2023