ABSTRACT
This chapter examines census data from selected Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries to examine access to formal education and educational attainments, and to determine factors that influence both access and educational attainment in selected African countries. Research shows that formal education leverages many variables that are related to demographic change, as well as social and economic development, such as health, mortality, and productivity, earnings, and fertility and that educational attainment influences human health, economic growth, and the functioning of democracies through the entry of better education cohorts into the decisive age-groups. This makes access to education and improved educational attainment important priorities for many countries' social and economic development. This analysis has shown that despite challenges relating to gender equality in access to formal education, especially at secondary and tertiary levels, there has been significant improvement in access to education and educational attainment during each country's ten-year intercensal period.
