Education levels affect TFR: 3.3 for illiterate women, 1.8 for literate

NEW DELHI: Education among women has a direct impact on fertility — a fact emphasised in the latest Sample Registration System Statistical Report that showed that even as India’s Total Fertility Rate (TFR) declined to 1.9 in 2023, continuing to be below the replacement level of 2.1, it is a high 3.3 for illiterate women and 1.8 for literate women.

In 2022, while India’s TFR stood at 2.0, the rate by education level was 3.0 for illiterate women and 1.9 for literate women.

The level of education among literate women also made a difference — those without any formal education and those with below primary education had 2.2 TFR each, those with primary and middle level education had a 2.0 TFR, those with education level of class X had 1.8 TFR and those with education level of class XII had a 1.7 TFR. The TFR was lowest at 1.6 among women who had graduate and above education level.

In 2022, among literate women, those without any formal education had a 2.4 TFR, followed by those with below primary education (2.5), primary education (2.3), middle education (2.1), class X (1.9), class XII (1.8) and graduate and above (1.6).

TFR is the average number of children a woman would hypothetically have in her lifetime if she were to experience the current age-specific fertility rates throughout her reproductive years (typically 15-49). TFR below the replacement level of 2.1 children per woman suggests a population is shrinking, as each generation is not fully replacing the previous one.

The report also brought into focus that TFR classified by education levels also varies from state to state. Bihar had the highest TFR among illiterate women (4.2) and literate women (2.6) in the country. Delhi and Telangana had the lowest TFR for illiterate women (1.9). Delhi has lowest TFR for literate women at 1.2.

In 2023, in India, 9.5% of women in the 15-49 age group were illiterate, while 90.5% were literate. Among literate women, 3.4% had no formal education, 7.7% had education level of below primary, 14.2% had primary education, 20% had middle school education, 19.4% had education till class X, 14.4% were educated till class XII and 11.5% had a graduate degree or above.

Data for individual states and UTs showed that the percentage of illiterate women varies widely, from a low of 0.4 in Kerala to a high 18.2 in Bihar. Similarly, the percentage of women with graduate and above education ranges from a low of 3.4% in Bihar to a high of 29.1% in Kerala.