PDF, 1536K - Measure DHS

to have another child; however, only 22 percent want another child within two years. Thirty-six percent
prefer to wait for two years or more to have another child, and 32 percent want no more children or
have been sterilized (Figure 7.1). It is clear from the information presented in Table 7.1 that the
majority of Ethiopian women (68 percent) prefer to space or limit the number of children and are
potentially in need of family planning. Men’s fertility preferences follow a pattern somewhat similar to
women’s. However, a higher percentage (72 percent) of men want to have another child.
The proportion of women who want no more children increased from 24 percent in 1990 (CSA,
1993) to 32 percent in 2000, an 8 percentage point increase. This provides a promising scope for the
country’s population policy to meet its objectives.
Figure 7.1 Fertility Preferences of Currently Married Women
Age 15-49
Wants a child later
(after 2 years) 36%
Wants a child soon
(within 2 years) 22%
Declared
infecund 3%
Wants a child,
unsure of timing 3%
Undecided 3%
Wants no more
children/Sterilized 32%
Note: Percentages add to less than 100 due to rounding.
Ethiopia DHS 2000
The percentage of currently married women who do not want any more children increases with
increasing number of living children, from 5 percent among married women with no living children to
65 percent among women with six or more living children (Figure 7.2). A similar pattern is also
observed for men, except that a relatively lower percentage of men want to limit childbearing.
Table 7.2 presents data on the fertility desires of 1,207 monogamous couples by number of living
children and examines whether the fertility preferences of a woman and her spouse are similar or
different. Seventy-one percent of couples agree on their desire either to have more children (54 percent)
or to have no more children (17 percent). This shows a generally high level of agreement among couples
on their desire for children. In cases in which spouses report the same number of children, the
percentage of couples who agree on wanting no more children increases with the number of living
children they have, while the percentage of couples who agree on wanting more children decreases with
the number of living children. For example, only 6 percent of couples with one to three children want
no more children, compared with 52 percent of couples with seven or more children. At the same time
87 percent of couples without any living children want more children, compared with only 8 percent of
couples with seven or more living children. Overall, a higher percentage of husbands
86 * Fertility Preference