Census Analytical Report - Uganda Bureau of Statistics

The 2002 Population and Housing CensusTable 5.5: Proportion of Births in the Last 12 Months that were of High Riskby TypeHigh Risk CategoryCharacteristics of Women Too Early Too Late Too Many All Categories*ResidenceUrban 21.5 3.4 17.9 41.2Rural 18.7 6.3 35.2 55.2Marital StatusNever Married 54.8 1.7 6.4 61.8Married 14.0 12.6 37.2 52.5Widowed/Divorced/Separated 11.0 19.7 38.5 53.1EducationNone 11.1 19.3 45.7 58.9Primary 21.6 9.7 32.2 54.7Secondary 27.8 4.6 15.4 44.2Above secondary 4.2 8.0 14.0 21.7All Women 19.0 6.0 33.3 53.7* Some births fall in more than one risk category. Therefore, this figure is NOT a sum of the threecategories.5.5 Infertility and ChildlessnessInfertility is a medical condition which cannot be easily established. However, theUgandan society is characterized by early and almost universal marriage as well ashigh fertility. Therefore, having had no children at the end of ones reproductive life isunlikely to be voluntary and is taken as a proxy for infertility. A difficulty in thisapproach is raised by those women who lose children at very young ages and reportthemselves childless.Figure 5.6 shows that about five per cent of the women aged 45 – 49 years (hence at6 percent ofthe old womenwere infertilethe end of their reproductive life) had never given birth. This compares to 6 percent ofwomen in the 50-54 age group that were childless, which could suggest thatchildlessness is declining over the years.The level of childlessness in a normal population is taken to be between 2 and 4percent 4 . Although the level of childlessness in Uganda is slightly higher than normal,it is neither large nor alarming. Even if reduced, it is unlikely to have substantial effecton the level of fertility.4 Shryock H.S and Siegel J.S, The Methods and Materials of Demography Condensed Edition50