Demographic pressure and development: a focus on sub-Saharan countries

The aim of our analysis is to study the role played by the demographic pressure and behavior on the Human Develpment Index (HDI) in the sub-Saharan Africa, using data at the level of small areas. In order to do so we use a multilevel approach that considers hierachical contextual data. The IPUMS data (referring to health, fertility, infant mortality, characteristics of the household and dwelling, work status, migration status etc.) allow us to carry out the analysis of correlation between geographic context (and its socio-economic and cultural characteristics) and demographic variables, starting from the individual census data. The IPUMS data permit to calculate Municipality Human Development Index through a weak modification of variables used in the building of HDI at state level. A preliminary analysis of demographic characteristics of sub-Saharan countries at state level will be carried out through DHS data. Total fertility rates, Infant mortality rates and other indicators are easily calculated using Stat-compiler routine in the DHS website. Then we will focus on the census IPUMS data analysing sub-national correlation with developmental variables, using multilevel models to take into account the hierarchical nature of the data.