Mapping Unrealized Fertility in Sub-Saharan Africa

Many women in DHS Program countries have fewer children than they desire. Our newest StoryMap explores unrealized fertility in sub-Saharan Africa, based on the recently published analysis Comparing Ideal and Completed Family Size: A Focus on Women in Low- and Middle-income Countries with Unrealized Fertility. Unrealized fertility is most common among women in Western and Central Africa where about 60% of women age 40-49 report that they had fewer children than they would have liked.

The StoryMap and paper also explore sex preference, ideal family size, and subnational variation in unrealized fertility.

Explore the StoryMap

Featured image © Roger Tete for PMI/USAID

World Population Day 2021

July 11^th is World Population Day. The Household Questionnaire collects information on all members of and visitors to households selected to participate in Demographic and Health Surveys. Basic information including age, sex, marital status, education, and relationship to the head of the household is collected for everyone who stayed in the selected households the night before the interview. Some of this information is visualized in a population pyramid, a great visualization of a country’s distribution of age groups by sex. The population pyramid is typically found in chapter 2 of Demographic and Health Survey Final Reports. Demographers can identify population trends based on a population pyramid’s shape and make predictions about that country’s population in the future.

Test your knowledge of demography, fertility, and population pyramids by taking The DHS Program’s #PopPyramid Quiz featuring population pyramids from recently published Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS). Hint: Use STATcompiler.com to find the answers.

The DHS Program’s #PopPyramid Quiz