The Role of Family Planning in Recent Rapid Fertility Declines in Developing Countries

World Fertility Survey data for ten developing countries are used to examine the respective roles of development and family planning in influencing the regulation of fertility. The findings show that high proportions of women at all socioeconomic levels in the countries studied wanted no more children, including large proportions among rural, poor, and uneducated women with few children. The data also show that despite the limitations of underdevelopment, in countries with strong family planning programs knowledge and use of contraception was high. These findings confirm that there is a large unmet demand for family planning and point to the importance of continued allocation of funds to support service programs.