Did you know high fertility rates significantly increase the risk of upheaval and war? A society that educates girls is a society that is not (or will no longer be) a good home for terrorist outfits and rebel militia groups; no wonder these warmongers hate girls schools so much. One of the factors that correlates most strongly to instability is a youth bulge in a population. The more unemployed young men ages 15 to 24, the more upheaval.One study found that for every 1 percentage point increase in the share of the population aged 15 to 24, the risk of civil war increases by 4 percent. That means that curbing birthrates tends to lead to stability, and that’s where educating girls comes in. You educate a boy, and he’ll have fewer children, but it’s a small effect. You educate a girl, and, on average, she will have a significantly smaller family. One robust Nigeria study managed to tease out correlation from causation and found that for each additional year of primary school, a girl has 0.26 fewer children. So if we want to reduce the youth bulge a decade from now, educate girls today. Thanks to Terri Bossard for the tip.
Posted on: Tue, 13 May 2014 19:00:32 +0000
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