Female education levels

What does this indicator tell us?

The indicator is the level of education among women of reproductive age in a country.

How is it defined?

This indicator gives the percentage distribution of women aged 15-49 years by the highest level of schooling attended or completed.

What are the consequences and implications?

Gender parity in education is important, not only because education is a fundamental human right for all, but also because educated girls tend to marry later and have fewer, healthier and better nourished children. Recent analyses have found that the risk of stunting is significantly lower among mothers with primary schooling, and even more so among mothers with secondary schooling, although the exact pathways have not been tested.

Source of data

Demographic and health surveys (DHS) program STATcompiler (http://www.statcompiler.com/).

Further reading

Ruel MT, Alderman H, Maternal and Child Nutrition Study Group. Nutrition-sensitive interventions and programmes: how can they help to accelerate progress in improving maternal and child nutrition? Lancet. 2013;382(9891):536-551.

Smith LC, Ramakrishnan U, Ndiaye A, Haddad L, Martorell R. The importance of women's status for child nutrition in developing countries. Washington (DC): International Food Policy Research Institute; 2003 (http://www.ifpri.org/publication/importance-womens-status-child-nutrition-developing-countries).

UNESCO. Education transforms lives. Paris: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization; 2013 (http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002231/223115E.pdf).