Malawi 2015-16

Trends: The percentage of currently married women
age 15-49 who want no more children (including
women who are sterilised) increased from 25% in
1992 to 49% in 2015-16. This trend is particularly
striking when examined by a woman’s number of
living children (Figure 6.1). For example, the
percentage of currently married women with five
living children who want no more children increased
from 45% in 1992 to 85% in 2015-16; the
percentage of currently married women with two
living children who want no more children rose from
12% in 1992 to 29% in 2015-16 (Figure 6.1).
Patterns by background characteristics
• The more children a woman has, the less likely she is to want another child. Seventy-four percent of
currently married women with no children want to have a child within the next 2 years, compared with
17% women with one child and 10% of women with two children (Table 6.1).
• The desire to have more children is slightly higher among currently married men than women,
regardless of their number of living children. For example, 15% of men with two children want
another child soon compared with 10% of women.
• There are large differences in desire to limit childbearing among women and men by education.
Specifically, 66% of currently married women with no education want no more children compared
with 51% of currently married men with no education (Tables 6.2.1 and 6.2.2).
6.2 IDEAL FAMILY SIZE
Figure 6.1 Trends in desire to limit
childbearing by number of living children
Ideal family size
Respondents with no children were asked, “If you could choose exactly the
number of children to have in your whole life, how many would that be?”
Respondents who had children were asked: “If you could go back to the time
when you did not have any children and could choose exactly the number of
children to have in your whole life, how many would that be?”
Sample: Women and men age 15-49
45
34
18
12
Percentage of currently married women
age 15-49 who want no more children
70
59 58
43
28
75
80
63
85
5 children
72
4 children
3 children
52
43
39
2 children
25 27 29
1992 2000 2004 2010 2015-16
If they could choose their family size, women and
men in Malawi would both choose to have an
average 3.7 children (Table 6.3). The ideal family
size is slightly higher among women and men who
are currently married (Figure 6.2).
Trends: From 1992 to 2015-16, there has been a
gradual decline in the preferred family size in
Malawi. For both women and men, the ideal number
of children fell from 5.1 to 3.7.
Figure 6.2 Ideal family size
Mean ideal number of children among
women and men age 15-49
3.7
Women
Men
3.9
3.7 3.8
All
Currently married
84 • Fertility Preferences