Demographic and Health Survey 2009-10 - Timor-Leste Ministry of ...

OTHER PROXIMATE DETERMINANTS OF FERTILITY 6
This chapter addresses the principal factors other than contraception that affect a woman’s
risk of becoming pregnant. The principal factors are nuptiality (including age at first marriage and age
at first sexual intercourse), postpartum amenorrhea and sexual abstinence, and menopause. In
societies where sexual activity usually takes place within marriage, marriage signals the onset of a
woman’s exposure to the risk of childbearing. Postpartum amenorrhea and sexual abstinence affect
the duration of a woman’s insusceptibility to pregnancy, which in turn affects birth spacing. The onset
of menopause marks the end of a woman’s reproductive life. These variables taken together determine
the length and pace of a woman’s reproductive life and are, therefore, important for understanding
fertility.
6.1 CURRENT MARITAL STATUS
Table 6.1 shows the marital status by age and sex. Three-fifths of women (60 percent) and
just over one in two men (53 percent) age 15-49 are currently in a union. Thirty-six percent of women
age 15-49 have never been married, whereas the proportion of men age 15-49 who have never been
married is considerably higher (46 percent). The proportion that have never married decreases sharply
with age for both women and men: among women, from 92 percent in the age group 15-19 to 3
percent in the age group 45-49; and among men, from nearly 100 percent in the age group 15-19 to
less than 2 percent in the age group 45-49.
Table 6.1 Current marital status
Percent distribution of women and men age 15-49 by current marital status, according to age, Timor-Leste 2009-10
Age
Never
married Married
Marital status
Living
together Divorced Separated Widowed
WOMEN
Total
Percentage of
respondents
currently in
union
Number of
respondents
15-19 91.8 6.0 1.7 0.1 0.3 0.0 100.0 7.7 3,144
20-24 51.0 42.2 4.7 0.9 0.9 0.3 100.0 47.0 2,343
25-29 16.6 75.8 4.1 0.6 1.6 1.3 100.0 79.9 1,897
30-34 6.7 86.5 2.3 1.0 1.7 1.9 100.0 88.8 1,534
35-39 5.1 88.6 1.3 0.8 1.2 3.0 100.0 89.9 1,684
40-44 4.0 86.2 1.0 0.9 1.8 6.2 100.0 87.2 1,388
45-49 3.2 83.3 0.5 0.8 1.2 11.0 100.0 83.8 1,146
Total 15-49 35.6 57.8 2.4 0.6 1.1 2.5 100.0 60.2 13,137
MEN
15-19 99.6 0.3 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 100.0 0.4 994
20-24 80.1 14.6 4.8 0.0 0.6 0.0 100.0 19.4 643
25-29 37.8 54.1 7.2 0.3 0.1 0.5 100.0 61.3 586
30-34 15.2 77.1 6.6 0.1 0.3 0.7 100.0 83.7 439
35-39 8.8 84.7 4.3 0.1 0.6 1.5 100.0 88.9 553
40-44 3.5 89.7 4.2 0.2 0.3 2.1 100.0 93.8 462
45-49 1.8 88.6 6.1 0.0 0.9 2.6 100.0 94.6 400
Total 15-49 45.8 48.8 4.2 0.1 0.3 0.8 100.0 53.0 4,076
About 3 percent of women age 15-49 are widowed compared with less than one percent of
men in the same age group. The proportion of women who are widowed increases with age, and at
age 45-49 more than one in ten women is widowed. At age 45-49, only about 3 percent of men are
widowed. About 2 percent of women and less than half a percent of men age 15-49 are divorced or
separated 1 .
1 Data from 2003 DHS on marital status was derived from the household-level questionnaire administered to
ever-married women only, so no comparison on marital status can be made.
Other Proximate Determinants of Fertility | 79