Lower Egyptian Fertility Linked to Later Marriage, Increased Method Use

Abstract

This paper reports on several analyses of contraceptive use trends and fertility determinants in Egypt. Analysis is based primarily on data from the 1992 Egypt Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS). One study used data from the 1980 Egypt Fertility Survey the 1984 Egypt Contraceptive Prevalence Survey and the 1988 and 1992 EDHS. This study documents the doubling of contraceptive use among married women during 1982-90. The second study uses birth history from the 1992 EDHS in the analysis of fertility decline and its determinants. The first study indicates that contraceptive prevalence rose from 24% in 1980 to 47% in 1992. Slower prevalence rate increases occurred in high-prevalence regions of Lower Egypt and Urban Governorates. A rapid increase in prevalence rate occurred in rural areas of Upper Egypt. There was a shift in choice of methods. IUD use increased and use of oral contraceptives decreased slightly. Increases in use occurred in all age groups. Levels of use were lowest among adolescents and women in their early 20s. 32% of women with 1 child used contraception in 1992 compared to only 16% in 1980. 59% of women with 3 children used contraception in 1992 compared to only 29% in 1980. Method use was highest among the most educated women. Findings from a logistic model indicated that urban women were 1.5 times more likely to use contraception. Women living in Lower Egypt or Urban Governorates were twice as likely to use contraception as women in Upper Egypt. In the second study researchers found that delayed age at marriage changes in postpartum insusceptibility and an increase in the proportion of reproductive age women contributed to a 13% decline in fertility during 1988-92. Women born between 1963 and 1977 had much lower fertility than women born earlier. The number of women with a second birth within 5 years of the first declined between 1988-92. Both studies confirmed a fertility transition.