Quantifying and qualifying the demand for Arab-Islamic education remains poorly documented, despite being a central issue for African educational policies. A significant number of children are enrolled in facilities in the nine Sub-Saharan African countries that have data on formal Arab-Islamic education and Arab-Islamic schools. Whilst some children are enrolled in both State and Qur’anic education systems, many of them only attend Qur’anic schools. The latter target middle-income families sandwiched between rich, urban households and poor, rural households whose children are not in school.