Most importantly, the considerable body of research quantifying the role of educational reforms and government policies in the continent has not considered the role of religion 25. Focusing on Malawi, Nigeria and Uganda, these studies stress the role of religious leaders and social norms. 23, 24, who report considerable educational differences between Christians and Muslims in 11 African countries in 2017, showing further that gaps are considerable in predominantly Muslim areas. An exception is the parallel work of refs. It is in Africa, though, that the interreligious gaps in education are striking and a plethora of narratives point to their rising salience 22.

Similarly, research on the interplay between religion and economic performance 19, 20 often focuses on the role of Islam in the Middle East and Asia 21. Although some pioneering case studies analyse the role of religion in Nigeria 12, 13, looking among others at the Yoruba 14, 15, there has been limited comparative work on religion, as the vibrant research in economics on the political economy of African development mainly focuses on ethnicity 16, 17, 18. Policy briefs and reports 7, 11 have discussed the considerable Muslim–Christian differences in education levels but a comprehensive account of the evolution of interdenominational educational gaps and their determinants is missing. African Muslims are more educated only in a few countries where they are small minorities-South Africa, Zambia and Rwanda (about 1–2% of the populations of these countries) and Uganda (11%). In Ethiopia, Africa’s second-most populous country, 29% of Christians (about two-thirds of the population) born in the 1990s have completed primary education, with Muslims registering 16%. For example, in Nigeria (Africa’s most populous country, roughly equally split between Christians and Muslims), the primary school completion rate of Christians is 0.88, whereas it is 0.57 for Muslims. Although the share of Africans with no schooling has declined from two-thirds for those born in the 1950s to less than half for the 1990s cohort, religious differences persist. In several countries, mostly in West Africa, primary school completion for Christians was more than double that of Muslims or Africans adhering to local religions ( Supplementary Information, section A). At independence, Christians enjoyed more schooling, reflecting colonial investments and missionary activity 8, 9, 10. As we show here, educational gaps circumscribe the religious landscape. Nevertheless, the most important divide between African Muslims and Christians is not their religion. Religiosity is high, with 75% of Christians and Muslims attending a church and a mosque at least once a week, according to the 2016 Afrobarometer Surveys. As African governments and international organizations invest heavily in educational programmes, our findings highlight the need to understand better the private and social returns to schooling across faiths in religiously segregated communities and to carefully think about religious inequalities in the take-up of educational policies 6.Īfrica hosts vibrant Christian and Muslim communities and, given the demographic trends, it will be home to the largest numbers of both creeds in the coming decades 7.

Fourth, the Christian–Muslim gap is most prominent in areas with large Muslim communities, where the latter also register the lowest emigration rates. Their low internal mobility accentuates the educational deficit, as Muslims reside on average in areas that are less urbanized and more remote with limited infrastructure. Third, although Muslims benefit as much as Christians when they move early in life to high-mobility regions, they are less likely to do so. Second, differences in intergenerational mobility between Christians and Muslims persist among those residing in the same district, in households with comparable economic and family backgrounds.

First, Christians have better mobility outcomes than Traditionalists and Muslims. We construct comprehensive religion-specific measures of intergenerational mobility in education using census data from 2,286 districts in 21 countries and document the following. In this study, we examine the educational progress across faiths throughout postcolonial Africa, home to some of the world’s largest Christian and Muslim communities. The African people and leaders 1, 2 have long seen education as a driving force of development and liberation, a view shared by international institutions 3, 4, as schooling has large economic and non-economic returns, particularly in low-income settings 5.

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