Urbanization, fertility and child education in Sub-Saharan Africa

•We analyze the relationship between urbanization, fertility and child education in Sub-Saharan Africa.•The use of individual-level data allows us to analyze structural rural-urban differences.•Fertility is lower in urban than in rural areas.•Investment in child education is higher in urban than in rural areas.•These patterns are consistent with a transition from a (post-)Malthusian towards a modern growth regime.

Using individual-level survey data, we show that the urbanization process in today's Sub-Saharan Africa is associated with the fertility transition and increased investment in child education. This is consistent with the experience of the Western economies during their transition from a (post-)Malthusian towards a modern growth regime. The use of individual-level data allows us to analyze structural rural-urban differences, holding constant age and regional characteristics which are potentially confounding factors in regional- and country-level regressions.