Africa has currently undergone its mortality transition from high to low death rates, mainly through a rapid decline in child mortality rates; however, its fertility transition is slow in some regions and stalled in others (in 2015, fertility rate was still more than four births per woman). To measure the impacts of education on population dynamics, demographic projections have been implemented considering educational attainment distributions in addition to the conventional age-sex-distributions and taking account of the marked differences in fertility and mortality rates by level of education. Following the broader narratives of the shared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs), three scenarios are developed and discussed.

Under the SSP1 scenario, which reflects the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG)4, ensuring equitable quality of education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all and SDG5, achieving gender equality and empowerment of women and girls, the enhancement of women education will generate a  decrease of the average number of children per woman; nevertheless, the timing of the SDG attainments will vary in relation to country-specific educational trajectories: some countries would remain entrapped in a high fertility rate longer than others.

Education can differently shape the growth of populations as a consequence of their demographic metabolism.