Search

Copyright of Population & Sociétés is the property of Institut National d'Etudes Demographiques and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Expanding access to contraception and ensuring that need for family planning is satisfied are essential for achieving universal access to reproductive healthcare services, as called for in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. To quantify the gaps that remain in meeting needs among adolescents, this study provides a harmonised data set and global estimates and projections of family planning indicators for adolescents aged 15–19 years. We compiled a comprehensive dataset of family-planning indicators among women aged 15–19 from 754 nationally representative surveys. We used a Bayesian hierarchical model with country-specific annual trends to estimate contraceptive prevalence and unmet need for family planning, with 95% uncertainty intervals (UIs), for 185 countries, taking into account changes in proportions married or in a union and differences in sexual activity among unmarried women across countries. Among 300 million women aged 15–19 years in 2019, 29.8 million (95% UI 24.6–41.7) use any contraception, and 15.0 million (95% UI 12.1–29.2) have unmet need for family planning. Population growth and the postponement of marriage influence trends in the absolute number of adolescents using contraception or experiencing unmet need. Large gaps remain in meeting family-planning needs among adolescents. The proportion of the need satisfied by modern methods, Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) indicator 3.7.1, was 59.2% (95% UI 44.8–67.2) globally among adolescents, lower compared to 75.7% (95% UI 73.2%–78.0%) among all women age 15–49 years. It was less than one half of adolescents in need in Western Asia and Northern Africa (38.7%, 95%UI = 20.9–56.5), Central and Southern Asia (43.5%, 95%UI = 36.6–52.3), and sub-Saharan Africa (45.6%, 95%UI = 42.2–49.0). The main limitations of the study are: (i) the uncertainty surrounding estimates for countries with limited or biased data is large; and (ii) underreporting of contraceptive use and needs is likely, especially among unmarried adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an analysis of trends in sexual activity by marital status and age, and their associations with contraceptive use. Understanding levels of, and trends in, sexual activity is important for assessing the needs for family planning services and for analysing commonly used family planning indicators. Data were taken from 220 Demographic and Health Surveys (DHSs) and 62 Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICSs) to provide insights into sexual activity by marital status and age in a total of 94 countries in different regions of the world. The results show the sensitivity of the indicator with respect to the definition of currently sexually active, based on the timing of last sexual intercourse (during the last 4 weeks, 3 months, or 1 year). Substantial diversity in sexual activity by marital status and age was demonstrated across countries. The proportion of married women reporting recent sexual activity (sexual intercourse during the last 4 weeks) ranged from 50% to 90%. The proportion of unmarried women reporting recent sexual activity did not exceed 50% in any of the 94 countries with available data, but showed substantial regional differences: it appeared to be rare in Asia and extremely varied within Africa, Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean. Among married women, sexual activity did not vary much by age group, while for unmarried women, there was an inverted U-pattern by age, with the youngest age group (15–19 years old) having the lowest proportion sexually active. The proportion of women who reported currently using contraception and reported not being sexually active varied by the contraceptive method used and was overall much greater among unmarried women. The evidence presented in this paper can be used to improve family planning policies and programmes to serve the diverse needs, for example regarding method choice and service provision, of unmarried women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Expanding access to contraception and ensuring that need for family planning is satisfied are essential for achieving universal access to reproductive healthcare services, as called for in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Monitoring progress towards these outcomes is well established for women of reproductive age (15-49 years) who are married or in a union (MWRA). For those who are not, limited data and variability in data sources and indicator definitions make monitoring challenging. To our knowledge, this study is the first to provide data and harmonised estimates that enable monitoring for all women of reproductive age (15-49 years) (WRA), including unmarried women (UWRA). We seek to quantify the gaps that remain in meeting family-planning needs among all WRA.Methods and Findings: In a systematic analysis, we compiled a comprehensive dataset of family-planning indicators among WRA from 1,247 nationally representative surveys. We used a Bayesian hierarchical model with country-specific time trends to estimate these indicators, with 95% uncertainty intervals (UIs), for 185 countries. We produced estimates from 1990 to 2019 and projections from 2019 to 2030 of contraceptive prevalence and unmet need for family planning among MWRA, UWRA, and all WRA, taking into account the changing proportions that were married or in a union. The model accounted for differences in the prevalence of sexual activity among UWRA across countries. Among 1.9 billion WRA in 2019, 1.11 billion (95% UI 1.07-1.16) have need for family planning; of those, 842 million (95% UI 800-893) use modern contraception, and 270 million (95% UI 246-301) have unmet need for modern methods. Globally, UWRA represented 15.7% (95% UI 13.4%-19.4%) of all modern contraceptive users and 16.0% (95% UI 12.9%-22.1%) of women with unmet need for modern methods in 2019. The proportion of the need for family planning satisfied by modern methods, Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) indicator 3.7.1, was 75.7% (95% UI 73.2%-78.0%) globally, yet less than half of the need for family planning was met in Middle and Western Africa. Projections to 2030 indicate an increase in the number of women with need for family planning to 1.19 billion (95% UI 1.13-1.26) and in the number of women using modern contraception to 918 million (95% UI 840-1,001). The main limitations of the study are as follows: (i) the uncertainty surrounding estimates for countries with little or no data is large; and (ii) although some adjustments were made, underreporting of contraceptive use and needs is likely, especially among UWRA.Conclusions: In this study, we observed that large gaps remain in meeting family-planning needs. The projected increase in the number of women with need for family planning will create challenges to expand family-planning services fast enough to fulfil the growing need. Monitoring of family-planning indicators for all women, not just MWRA, is essential for accurately monitoring progress towards universal access to sexual and reproductive healthcare services-including family planning-by 2030 in the SDG era with its emphasis on 'leaving no one behind.' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We know that internal migration shapes human settlement patterns, but few attempts have been made to measure systematically the extent of population redistribution or make comparisons between countries. Robust comparisons are hampered by limited data access, different space-time frameworks, and inadequate summary statistics. We use new analysis software (IMAGE Studio) to assess the effects of differences in the number and configuration of geographic zones and implement new measures to make comparisons across a large sample of countries, representing 80% of global population. We construct a new Index of Net Migration Impact to measure system-wide population redistribution and examine the relative contributions of migration intensity and effectiveness to cross-national variations. We compare spatial patterns using the slope of a regression between migration and population density across zones in each country to indicate the direction and pace of population concentration. We report correlations between measures of population redistribution and national development and propose a general theoretical model suggesting how internal migration redistributes population across settlement systems during the development process. Copyright © 2016 The Authors Population, Space and Place Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While considerable progress has been made in understanding the way particular aspects of internal migration, such as its intensity, age profile and spatial impact, vary between countries around the world, little attention to date has been given to establishing how these dimensions of migration interact in different national settings. We use recently developed measures of internal migration that are scale-independent to compare the overall intensity, age composition, spatial impact, and distance profile of internal migration in 19 Latin American countries. Comparisons reveal substantial cross-national variation but cluster analysis suggests the different dimensions of migration evolve systematically to form a broad sequence characterised by low intensities, young ages at migration, unbalanced flows and high friction of distance at lower levels of development, trending to high intensities, an older age profile of migration, more closely balanced flows and lower friction of distance at later stages of development. However, the transition is not linear and local contingencies, such as international migration and political control, often distort the migration-development nexus, leading to unique migration patterns in individual national contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the connection between national immigration policy and a society's attitudes towards immigration. It argues that a country's immigration policy framework plays an important role in the formation of attitudes towards immigration by shaping the local national context of the receiving country. It examines the influence of a country's immigration policy framework by contrasting two countries - Australia and Germany - that developed remarkably different immigration policies in response to large immigration movements during the postwar period. We explore attitudes towards immigration on four dimensions: (1) the national economy, (2) the labour market, (3) the national culture, and (4) the level of immigrant influx. The analyses reveal three main fi ndings. First, people in Australia tend to display more positive attitudes towards immigration than in Germany. Second, in both countries, attitudes towards immigration tend to be infl uenced in a similar way by an individual's socio-economic background and feelings of national identity (in the form of nationalism and patriotism). Third, immigration policy represents a strong indicator of attitudes towards immigration. We found that the planned integrative immigration policy in Australia supports the formation of more positive attitudes towards immigration by infl uencing people's perception on the economic and socio-cultural impacts of immigration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australian Bureau of Statistics Total Fertility Rate (TFR) statistics are available from 1921 for Australia, and for census years between 1947 and 1966 for the states, and then on an annual basis from 1971. Using historical, statistical publications, annual TFRs for Australia and the states dating back to federation in 1901 were calculated directly in years where data are available and estimated indirectly via the standardized fertility ratio in other years. For some periods where direct TFR estimation was applied, age-specific births used in the numerators of fertility rates must be estimated from partial data. Combined with Australian Bureau of Statistics data, the authors’ estimated TFRs contribute an uninterrupted time series of national and state TFRs for Australia from 1901 to 2011. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]