Lowering desired family size is a necessary precondition for fertility declines in high-fertility settings. Although accumulated evidence links socio-economic developments to changing fertility desires, little research has disentangled the relative importance of key socio-economic determinants. Combining individual- and community-level data from Demographic and Health Surveys in 34 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries, we compare the relative role of different socio-economic factors on fertility desires at the individual, community, and country levels. Results show that at the individual level, women’s education has a stronger effect than household wealth and area of residence. The high levels of reported desired family size in rural parts of SSA are mainly a consequence of relatively lower levels of education. The relative impact of women’s education is even stronger at the community level. Our findings are robust to alternative measures of fertility preferences and strengthen previous findings regarding the relationship between fertility and women’s education.

降低期望的家庭规模是高生育率环境中生育率下降的必要先决条件。尽管积累的证据将社会经济发展与不断变化的生育意愿联系起来，但很少有研究阐明关键社会经济决定因素的相对重要性。结合来自 34 个撒哈拉以南非洲 (SSA) 国家的人口和健康调查的个人和社区层面的数据，我们比较了不同社会经济因素在个人、社区和国家层面对生育意愿的相对作用。结果表明，在个人层面，女性受教育程度的影响大于家庭财富和居住面积。SSA 农村地区报告的理想家庭规模高主要是教育水平相对较低的结果。妇女教育的相对影响在社区层面甚至更大。我们的研究结果对生育偏好的替代措施是稳健的，并加强了先前关于生育与女性教育之间关系的研究结果。