Final Report (PDF, 2132K) - Measure DHS

the age of the child and the season of its birth when the respondent could not report a date of birth. Thisinformation was used by the interviewer to calculate the date of birth. Respondent digit preference inreporting the age of a child could have resulted in an erroneous concentration of births in the fourth andfifth years before the survey and an erroneous appearance of a fertility decline between 1981-83 and1984-86. Final resolution of this issue is beyond the scope of this report. It is possible that the TFR didnot decline by as much as 0.7 children per woman between 1981-83 and 1984-86. In these circumstancesthe most conservative approach is to rely on the intermediate estimate of the I~R for the longer timeperiod: i.e., 6.0 for the five-year period preceding the survey.Table 3.1Total Fertility Rates for 1981-83, 1984-86, and the Five-Year Period Prior to the Survey, and Mean Number ofChildren Ever Born to Women Aged 40-49, According toBackground Characteristics, ODHS, 1986Total Fertility Rates*Mean No.of ChildrenBackground 0-4 Years Ever Born toCharacteristic 1981-83 1984-86 Before Women 40-49ResidenceUrban 5.9 5.7 5.9 6.4Rural 6.6 5.5 6.0 7.1Riverine 6.3 6.1 6.4 7.7EducationNone 6.9 6.3 6.7 7.0Primary 7.3 6.8 7.1 7.0Secondary + 5.9 5.1 5.4 6.1ReligionCatholic 6.7 6.4 6.6 7.5Protestant 6.2 5.5 5.8 6.9Muslim 6.6 6.0 6.4 6.7Other/None 8.4 3.8 6.3 6.9Total 6.3 5.6 6.0 6.9* For women aged 15-44Table 3.1 provides other evidence that fertility has declined over the last twenty years. Theretrospective measure of fertility, the number of children ever born to women aged 40-49 (6.9), exceedsthe Tt'K for the recent period (6.0). This indicates that fertility has declined about one child per womanover the last two decades. With respect to area of residence, differences between the TI-R and childrenever bom are apparent in all areas, although somewhat smaller in urban (5.9 versus 6.4) than in rural (6.0versus 7.1) and riverine areas (6.4 versus 7.7).With respect to religious affdiation, the difference between the TH, t and children ever born is lesspronounced for Muslim women (6.4 versus 6.7) than for Catholic (6.6 versus 7.5) and Protestant women(5.8 versus 6.9). It appears that fertility change in Ondo State is being experienced to about the sameextent by Catholic and Protestant women and to a much lesser extent by Muslim women. With respect to20