Contraceptive prevalence rate (percentage)
Rationale for use
Contraceptive prevalence rate is an indicator of health, population, development and women's empowerment. It also serves as a proxy measure of access to reproductive health services that are essential for meeting many of the Millennium Development Goals, especially those related to child mortality, maternal health, HIV/AIDS, and gender equality.
Definition
Contraceptive prevalence rate is the proportion of women of reproductive age who are using (or whose partner is using) a contraceptive method at a given point in time.
Associated terms
Contraceptive methods include clinic and supply (modern) methods and non-supply (traditional) methods. Clinic and supply methods include female and male sterilization, intrauterine devices (IUDs), hormonal methods (oral pills, injectables, and hormone-releasing implants, skin patches and vaginal rings), condoms and vaginal barrier methods (diaphragm, cervical cap and spermicidal foams, jellies, creams and sponges). Traditional methods include rhythm, withdrawal, abstinence and lactational amenorrhoea.
Data sources
Household surveys, such as Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), Multiple Indicators Cluster Surveys (MICS), and contraceptive-prevalence surveys. Estimates can also be made from health-services statistics using census projections as a denominator. Such estimates, however, are often expressed in terms of couple years of protection and may not always be complete.
Methods of estimation
Empirical data only.
Disaggregation
By age (adolescence), marital status, method of contraception, location (urban/rural, major regions/provinces), and socioeconomic characteristics (e.g. level of education, wealth quintile)
References
-
World Contraceptive Use 2005
United Nations Population Division. World Contraceptive Use 2005. Wall chart. -
Reproductive health indicators—guidelines for their generation, interpretation and analysis for global monitoring
WHO, Department of Reproductive Health and Research. Reproductive health indicators—guidelines for their generation, interpretation and analysis for global monitoring. Geneva, World Health Organization, 2006. -
The world health report 2005—make every mother and child count
WHO. Annex Table 8. In: The world health report 2005—make every mother and child count. Geneva, World Health Organization, 2005.
Database
- United Nations Population Division
- Demographic and Health Surveys
- Statistics by area, and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys, UNICEF.
Comments
Measures of the prevalence of contraceptive use are usually derived from interviews with representative samples of women of reproductive age. In many surveys, questions on current contraceptive use are confined to married women, including those in consensual unions, in countries where such unions are common.