Demographic Time Series for Sub-Saharan Africa

More than thirty Sub-Saharan African countries are covered by this dataset, which contains annual time series from 1950 to the present. The series are reconstructed from Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) and focus on child mortality, fertility, and education levels. The data is described as likely the most reliable currently available for these demographic indicators in the region.

Use Cases

• Analyzing long-term trends in under-five mortality rates across Sub-Saharan African countries.
• Studying the relationship between female education levels and fertility rates over time.
• Modeling demographic transitions in Sub-Saharan Africa based on reconstructed historical series.

Strengths

• Covers a long time range, from 1950 to the present day.
• Includes data for more than thirty African countries.
• Series are regularly updated and described as highly reliable for the region.
• Derived from a standardized source, the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS).

Limitations

• The exact number of rows and specific column names are not provided in the available metadata.
• The descriptions note a general statistical uncertainty surrounding the quality of demographic data for mortality, fertility, and education in the region.
• There is a conflict in listed license information, with one source specifying GPL 2.0+ and another showing no license.

Provenance

Source

Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), reconstructed by researcher Michel Garenne.

Collection Method

Reconstruction of annual time series from survey data.

Time Range

1950 to present

Freshness

Last updated on 2026-06-06 according to the Dataverse platform.

Geography

Sub-Saharan Africa (more than thirty countries)