FAMILYPLANNINGUNPDUHC

Contraception is one of the most important tools that people have for a responsible and satisfactory sexual and reproductive health. This indicator provides a measurement of the percentage of married or in-union women, between 15 and 49 years of age, who have the information and means to plan freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of their children and in consequence, the size of their family. It also provides an indication of the success of reproductive health programmes in addressing demand for services.

Percentage of women of reproductive age (15−49 years) who are married or in-union who have their need for family planning satisfied with modern contraceptive methods. Numerator: Number of women aged 15-49 who are married or in-union who use modern contraceptive methods. Denominator: Total number of women aged 15-49 who are married or in-union in need of family planning Women who are married is defined in relation to the marriage laws or customs of a country and women in a union refers to women living with their partner in the same household (also referred to as cohabiting unions, consensual unions, unmarried unions, or “living together”. Modern methods of contraception include female and male sterilization, the intrauterine device (IUD), the implant, injectables, oral contraceptive pills, male and female condoms, vaginal barrier methods (including the diaphragm, cervical cap, and spermicidal foam, jelly, cream, and sponge), the lactational amenorrhoea method (LAM), emergency contraception, and other modern methods not reported separately (e.g., the contraceptive patch or vaginal ring).

Household surveys include a series of questions to measure modern contraceptive prevalence use rate and demand for family planning.

The demand for family planning that is satisfied by using modern methods of contraception describes the number of women of reproductive age (15–49 years) who are married or in a union who are currently using, or whose sexual partner is currently using, at least one modern contraceptive method, as a proportion of the number of women of reproductive age who are married or in a union who have a demand for family planning.

The United Nations Population Division produces a systematic and comprehensive series of annual estimates and projections of the percentage of demand for family planning that is satisfied among married or in-union women. A Bayesian hierarchical model combined with country-specific data is used to generate the estimates, projections and uncertainty assessments from survey data. The model accounts for differences by data source, sample population and contraceptive methods. See more details in the methods link below.

Preferred data sources: Population-based surveys (Demographic Health Surveys (DHS); Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS); Performance, Monitoring and Accountability 2020 (PMA2020) surveys, Gender and Generations Survey (GGS); and other surveys)

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UNPD UHC

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