Assessment of demographic factors in Africa’s development.

Abstract

Background: An enabling environment is an important element for economic development. African countries rank low on indices of development. The low level of development is rhetorically partly attributed to demographic factors, but quantitative assessment of the relationship is hardly produced to back up the rhetoric.Data Source and Methods: Data sourced from the United Nations, UNAIDS, the World Bank, Health and Nutrition and Population Statistics of the World Bank were utilized in the study.  The analysis consisted of bi-variate and multivariate regression.Results: The results suggest that the level of child dependency is significantly negatively associated with the level of development in African countries controlling for other demographic factors.Conclusion: The study found no evidence that total fertility rate and population growth have significant effect on gross national income per capita.