Malawi 2015-16

Patterns by background characteristics
• The more children that
respondents already have, the
more children they consider
ideal. For example, women
who have one child consider
3.1 children to be ideal, on
average. In contrast, women
who have six or more children
consider 5.2 children to be
ideal (Figure 6.3).
• Older women want larger
families. Ideal family size
increases from 3 children
among women age 15-19 to 5
children among women age 45-
49 (Table 6.4).
Figure 6.3 Ideal family size by number of
living children
3.2
2.9
3.1
3.3
Mean ideal number of children
3.43.5
Women
3.8 3.8
Men
4.2
4.0
4.54.6
5.25.3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6+
Number of living children
• Urban women (3.1) want fewer children than rural women (3.8).
• The average ideal number of children decreases as the education level of the respondent rises. Women
with no education want 4.6 children, while women with more than secondary education want 2.8
children.
• Women in wealthy households want slightly smaller families. The average ideal number of children is
3.9 among women in the lowest wealth quintile compared with 3.2 children among women in the
highest quintile.
6.3 FERTILITY PLANNING STATUS
Planning status of birth
Women reported whether their most recent birth was wanted at the time
(planned birth), at a later time (mistimed birth), or not at all (unwanted birth).
Sample: Current pregnancies and births in the 5 years before the survey to
women age 15-49
Mothers reported that 59% of births were wanted at
the time of conception, 11% were unwanted, and
30% were mistimed or wanted at a later date (Table
6.5 and Figure 6.4).
Figure 6.4 Fertility planning status
Percent distribution of births to women
age 15-49 in the five years before the
survey (including current pregnancies) by
planning status of births
Unwanted
11%
Wanted
then
59%
Mistimed
30%
Fertility Preferences • 85