The Potential Demand for Family Planning: A New Measure of Unmet Need and Estimates For Five Latin American Countries

Abstract

In light of the data obtained in the Demography and Health Survey currently under way, a new level has been calculated for the current unmet needs for family planning. This analysis allows a calculation of the potential demand for contraceptives for birth limiting or birth spacing, and includes the pregnant or amenorrheic women whose last pregnancy was unintentional. According to the new calculation, the unmet demands in 5 Latin American countries varies from 15% of married women in Brazil and Colombia, to 21% in the Dominican Republic and Ecuador, and 29% in Peru. In all these countries, the unmet need for contraceptives is greater among women who wish to limit births, compared to women desiring birth spacing, except in the Dominican Republic, where sterilization is very widespread. The greatest unmet needs are found among younger women and rural women, and it decreases significantly with educational level. To determine the level of desire for contraception during the decade before the survey, a computation was done for the 4 countries included in the Worldwide Survey of Fertility. A large decrease in the level of unmet desire for contraception was found over that time period, from 20% in Peru, to 55% in Colombia.