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Table 6.6 Median age at first sexual intercourse
Median age at first sexual intercourse among women age 20-49 years, by current age (women) and selected background
characteristics, Ethiopia 2000
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Current age Women Women Men
Background
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age age age
characteristic 20-24 a 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 20-49 25-49 25-59
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Residence
Urban
Rural
19.5 18.7 16.1 15.9 15.6 15.5 17.5 16.7 18.8
17.7 16.6 15.8 15.8 15.7 15.8 16.2 15.9 20.5
Region
Tigray
Affar
Amhara
Oromiya
Somali
Benishangul-Gumuz
SNNP
Gambela
Harari
Addis Ababa
Dire Dawa
16.0 15.7 15.3 15.2 15.4 15.5 15.6 15.5 22.3
16.3 15.8 15.5 15.5 15.4 15.3 15.6 15.5 18.6
14.9 14.7 14.4 14.3 14.2 14.4 14.5 14.4 19.7
18.7 17.9 16.0 16.3 16.0 16.3 17.0 16.5 18.9
18.5 18.6 16.9 17.5 16.1 17.2 17.7 17.4 23.0
16.6 16.0 15.0 16.0 15.6 15.5 15.8 15.6 20.1
19.7 19.0 17.3 17.7 16.4 17.4 18.2 17.7 22.2
16.8 16.3 15.5 15.8 16.2 16.9 16.2 16.0 18.3
18.8 17.9 17.0 15.4 15.5 15.8 17.0 16.4 18.9
a 20.8 18.6 16.4 16.2 15.7 a 18.2 19.6
a 19.6 18.4 18.7 18.1 17.2 a 18.7 20.9
Education
No education
Primary
Secondary and higher
17.4 16.3 15.7 15.7 15.6 15.8 16.0 15.8 20.6
18.8 18.2 16.0 16.5 17.2 16.0 17.7 17.0 20.2
a 20.0 18.4 18.5 19.0 18.9 a 19.5 18.8
All women
18.1 17.0 15.8 15.8 15.7 15.8 16.4 16.0 a
All men
a 21.3 19.7 19.1 20.2 20.4 NA NA 20.3
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NA = Not applicable
a Omitted when less than 50 percent of respondents have had intercourse for the first time by age 20
6.5 RECENT SEXUAL ACTIVITY
In addition to age at first sexual intercourse, in the absence of effective contraception, exposure
to pregnancy depends on the pattern of sexual activity. The most important factors are frequency of
intercourse, postpartum abstinence, and abstinence for reasons other than being postpartum.
Information on recent sexual activity, therefore, can be used to refine measures of exposure to
pregnancy. Tables 6.7 and 6.8 show the pattern of sexual activity in the four weeks preceding the survey
by background characteristics for women and men, respectively.
About one-half (51 percent) of all women were sexually active during the four weeks preceding
the survey, 7 percent were postpartum abstaining, and 19 percent were abstaining for other reasons.
The remaining 23 percent had never had sexual intercourse. The proportion of women who were
sexually active in the four weeks prior to the survey increases with age up to age 30-34 and declines
thereafter. In general, about two-thirds of women who have been married for 29 years or less have been
sexually active during the four weeks before the survey, but this percentage declines to one in two
women married for 30 years or longer. Higher proportions of rural women (55 percent) were sexually
active than urban women (33 percent). This could be because higher proportions of urban women age
15-49 are unmarried than rural women. Recent sexual activity is inversely related with education. The
proportion falls from 56 percent among women with no education to 28 percent among women with
80 * Other Proximate Determinants of Fertility