Testing the relationship between female labour force participation and fertility in Nigeria

Abstract

The study analysed the relationship existing between female labour force participation and fertility in Nigeria. We used Ordinary least Squares to estimated annual data obtained from the World Development Indicator from 1998-2011. It was found that a positive but insignificant relationship exists between female labour force participation and fertility in the country. Also, Literacy rate and contraceptive prevalence influences fertility positively while GDP per capita has a negative influence on fertility. Furthermore, microeconomic data from obtained from Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey was used to investigate the relationship using simple correlation coefficient. We found a negative relationship between female labour force participation and fertility as well as a negative relationship between fertility and contraceptive usage but a positive relationship between literacy rate and fertility. The study concluded that female labour force participation has little impact on fertility in the country; it is possible to be a mother and a worker or a student at the same time in Nigeria.