Final Report (PDF, 2132K) - Measure DHS

Table 3.2Age-Specific Fertility Rates (Per i000Women) for the Five-Year Period Priorto the Survey, by Area of Residence,ODHS, 1986Age-Specific Fertility RatesAge ofWomen Ondo State* Urban Rural15-19 61 60 5320-24 238 234 24625-29 301 300 30230-34 293 290 29135-39 194 200 18840-44 llO 87 12045-49 (40) (28) (45)TFR (10-44) 6.0 5.9 6.0TFR (15-49) 6.2 6.0 6.2Note: Numbers in parentheses represent partiallytruncated rates.* Includes riverine areas3.4 Children Ever BornTable 3.3 shows the mean number of children ever born--the cumulative childbearingexperience--for women 15-49 by age group. Among all women, the mean number of children ever bornis low for women 15-19 (0.1), remains low for women 20-24 (0.8) (reflecting the late age of marriage inOndo State) and increases rapidly for older age groups so that the completed family size of women 45-49is quite high (7.3). Among currently married women, the number of children ever bom for women 15-19(0.6) is higher than among all women, rises with age and reaches the same peak value in the age group45-49 (7.3) as for all women, reflecting the near universality of marriage and the low rates of widowhoodand divorce in Ondo State.It is worth noting that in many surveys, statistics on children ever bom rise steadily up to the agegroups 35-40 or 40-44, at which point they decline. This pattern generally reflects underreporting ofevents by the oldest cohorts of women--most probably underreporting of children who have died or whohave moved out of the home. The ODHS statistics show a steady rise in the number of children ever bomwith increasing age of women and a substantial increase between women aged 40-44 (6.5) and aged 45-49 (7.3). This suggests relatively complete reporting of data on children ever bom.Table 3.3 also shows the percent distribution of women by the number of children they have had.Fewer than 7 percent of women in the age group 15-19 have had a live birth, an indication of the late ageat marriage and late onset of childbearing among the women of Ondo State. These distributions alsoindicate that the incidence of primary infertility, as measured by the proportion of women in the olderages who have had no births, is low--on the order of 1 percent. Finally, the source of the difference in thenumber of children ever born to women aged 40-44 (6.5) and 45-49 (7.3) is evident from the22