Final Report (PDF, 2132K) - Measure DHS

In order to examine fertility preferences by background characteristics, a single index--thepercentage of women who want no more children--is presented in Table 5.3 by number of living children.The proportion of women who want no more children varies considerably by area of residence, withrelatively lower proportions of women in riverine areas wanting to stop childbearing. This is as expected,and probably reflects the greater isolation and more traditional thinking of these women with respect tochildbearing. However, the fact that more rural women want no more children than urban women (26 vs.22 percent) is surprising. This is due to the fact that women in rural areas generally have more childrenthan urban women; as shown in Table 5.3, there is little difference between the proportions of urban andrural women wanting no more children when the number of living children is taken into account.Table 5.3Percentage of Currently Married Women 15-49 Who Want No MoreChildren by Number of Living Children and Background Characteristics,ODHS, 1986BackgroundNumber of Living Children *Characteristic0 1 2 3 4 5 6+ TotalResidenceUrban 2,4 1.0 4.6 12.6 20.8 35.1 50.9 21.5Rural 0.0 2.7 6.3 11.2 25.4 34.3 51.9 26.3Riverine (0.0) 0.0 4.0 0.0 3.7 22.2 29.0 12.9EducationNone 3.2 4.1 12.0 19.5 27.7 41.3 50.4 32.3Primary 0.0 0.9 2,9 3.9 9.5 20.0 40.7 15.0Secondary + 0.0 0.5 0,0 3.7 33.3 31.0 67.3 12.3ReligionCatholic 0.0 2.0 5.7 10.3 20.0 26.7 37.7 19.1Protestant 1.7 1.7 4.5 11.9 24.3 36.1 52.2 25.0Muslim 0.0 1.7 9,4 9.0 12.7 27.9 42.2 18.5Other/None (0.01 (0.0) (0.0) (18.2) (25.0) (50.0) (43.8} 23.5Total 1.3 1,7 5.3 11.3 22.3 34.0 49.2 23.3Note: Numbers in parentheses are based on fewer than 20 cases.* Includes current pregnancyThe characteristic with the greatest influence on fertility preferences is educational level.Surprisingly, married women with no education are generally more likely to want to stop childbearingthan women with primary or secondary education, regardless of the number of children they already have.Among women with fewer than 4 children, those with primary education are more likely to want to stopchildbearing than those with secondary education, however, among women with 4 or more children, agreater proportion of those with secondary education want no more children than those with primaryeducation only. As for differences in fertility preferences by religion, Protestant women are generallymore likely to want to stop childbearing than either Catholic or Muslim women, regardless of the numberof children they already have.48