The objective of this study was to examine the effect of education on fertility
levels in Pakistan using data for 4125 females aged 15-49 years from the Pakistan Social and
Living Standards Measurement Survey (PSLM) 2007-08 both at the aggregate and disaggregate
level. The methodology of this study uses Poisson regression, the estimated results of which
verify that education (measured by the highest class passed) has a negative and statistically
significant impact on fertility levels, but this relation does not hold true for all levels of education.
While higher secondary and higher education are significant across all specifications in the
aggregate analysis, the impact of matriculation on fertility levels is mixed. Although, similar
results are obtained from the disaggregate analysis, an interesting conclusion is that no level
of education comes out to be statistically significant in affecting fertility levels in the provinces
of Balochistan and NWFP.