Countries in Sub-African countries that are classified as having experienced stalled
fertility declines after 2000 also experienced a discontinuity in the progress of
educational improvement for cohorts of women that during the 1980 were in their
primary school ages. While the proportion of young women without any formal
education had been gradually declining over the previous decades the Structural
Adjustment Programs of the early 1980s where associated with a stall or reversal of this
improvement. After that in most countries the improving trend picked up again for the
subsequent cohorts, but some cohorts of less educated women entered the prime
childbearing ages around 2000. Given the strong fertility differentials by education in
the countries concerned these education discontinuities provide a plausible explanation
for the fertility stalls over the period. Since younger cohorts are again much better
educated this also implies a likely end of the fertility stall.