This article examines individual, household, and community characteristics that may affect fertility in contemporary Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana and the relationship between child mortality and fertility. It was not possible to reject the null hypothesis that child mortality is exogenous. Treating child mortality as exogenous, fertility responds directly to child mortality, but by a smaller proportion than estimated in studies of East Asia and Latin America. Increases in female education and urbanization are likely to contribute to declines in fertility in both countries, but economic growth without these structural changes is not yet strongly related to lower fertility