State of World Population 2012 - UNFPA Haiti

cohabitating partner (UNICEF, Office of theDeputy Director, Policy and Practice, 2011).These details help contextualize family planningdata on young people, and tell a more completepicture of why young men are more likely thanyoung women to use condoms.AdultsEven though age at first marriage has risen, themajority of women and men eventually marryor live in consensual unions (United Nations,Department of Economic and Social Affairs,2009). As a result, childbearing remains commonplacewithin legally recognized unions—areality in alignment with social acceptability inmost countries where childbearing should occurbetween married couples. Recent data highlight,however, how adults’ need for family planningmay increasingly arise while they are single,separated, or divorced.Today, adults are spending more time out ofmarriage compared to previous generations, andtheir family planning needs reflect these realities.In developing as well as developed countries, theproportion of never-married adults is increasing.Over the last 40 years, the number of countrieswhere at least 10 per cent of women nevermarried (by age 50) has increased from 33 to 41;the number of countries where at least 10 percent of men do not marry before their 50thbirthday increased from 31 to 49.Consensual unions account for an increasingproportion of live-in partnerships, and thesepartnerships are less stable and more fluid thanformal marriages. In Latin America and theCaribbean, over a quarter of women betweenthe ages of 20 and 34 live in consensual unions(United Nations, Department of Economic andSocial Affairs, 2009). This arrangement is lesscommon in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia whereabout 10 per cent and 2 per cent of women,respectively, live in consensual unions. Globally,the proportion of adults (between the ages of 35and 39) who are divorced or separated has risenfrom 2 per cent to 4 per cent between 1970 and2000, a trend concentrated in developed countries(Organisation for Economic Co-operationand Development, 2010).Preferred methodsThe use of modern methods of family planninghas increased in recent years in Eastern Africa,particularly Ethiopia, Malawi and Rwanda,and in Southeast Asia, but there has been notA Cameroonianhome just visited bya community-basedfamily planningcounsellor.© UNFPA/Alain SibenalerTHE STATE OF WORLD POPULATION 201223