Unwanted Family Planning: Prevalence Estimates for 56 Countries

While there is a large literature on the prevalence of unmet need for family planning, there is no matching quantitative evidence on the prevalence of unwanted family planning; all contraceptive use is assumed to represent a met need. This lack of evidence raises concerns that some observed contraceptive use may be undesired and coercive. We provide estimates of unwanted family planning using Demographic and Health Survey data collected from 1,546,987 women in 56 low- and middle-income countries between 2011 and 2019. We estimate the prevalence of unwanted family planning, defined as the proportion of women who report wanting a child in the next nine months but who are using contraception. We find that 12.2 percent of women have an unmet need for family planning, while 2.1 percent have unwanted family planning, with estimated prevalence rates ranging from 0.4 percent in Gambia to 7.1 percent in Jordan. About half of unwanted family planning use can be attributed to condoms, withdrawal, and abstinence. Estimating the prevalence of unwanted family planning is difficult given current data collection efforts, which are not designed for this purpose. We recommend that future surveys probe the reasons for the use of family planning.

Automated summary

Although there is extensive research on unmet need for family planning, there is limited quantitative evidence on unwanted family planning. This study provides estimates of unwanted family planning using data from Demographic and Health Surveys conducted in 56 low- and middle-income countries. The prevalence of unwanted family planning is found to be 2.1 percent, with variations across countries. The use of condoms, withdrawal, and abstinence contribute to about half of unwanted family planning.