Fertility Behaviour of Men and Women in Three Communities in Kaduna State, Nigeria

Abstract

The UN Millennium Project aims to reduce poverty, hunger, and disease while promoting education, health, gender equity, and environmental sustainability. Fertility is not mentioned anywhere within the eight goals, but population growth rates profoundly impact the achievability of all goals by increasing the budgets required to meet the population’s basic needs. This paper describes the fertility patterns of men and women in three communities in Kaduna State, Nigeria. The findings reveal a total fertility rate (TFR) of 7.97, which surpasses the TFR of 7.3 reported from northwest Nigeria in the 2008 NDHS. Among both men and women, desired family size was high, with 37% of women citing 5-9 children as ideal and 32% citing 10-14 children as ideal. Fewer than 20% of women wanted less than five children, but as education increased, desired fertility significantly decreased. Among men there were significant associations between age, educational status, number of current wives and religion with the mean number of children ever fathered (Afr. J. Reprod. Health 2010; 14[3]: 97-105).

Key words: Male fertility, female fertility, fertility intentions, reproductive behaviour, polygamy, desired family size, northern Nigeria.