[size=16pt]Birth Rate Shows Rise in Niger, Steady in Nigeria[/size]

NIGER. The 2012 Niger Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) preliminary report shows a continuing high level of fertility. The total fertility rate (TFR, or the average number of children per woman) was reported as 7.6, higher than in the 2006 DHS. In the 2006 survey, women had expressed an “ideal” number of children as 8.8, while men preferred 11.0, one of the highest in the world. The rate of childbearing among young women ages 15 to 19 was quite high at 199 births annually per 1,000 women. Of the women interviewed, 80 percent had no education at all.

Total Fertility Rate, Niger, in Four DHS Surveys


In the survey, 14 percent of currently married or in-union women said that they were using some form of family planning, with 8 percent using a modern method, up from 5 percent in 2006. The pill accounted for nearly half of modern usage.

Infant mortality was 51 deaths to infants below age 1 per 1,000 live births in the five-year period before the survey, down from 123 deaths per 1,000 live births in the 1998 DHS. This is another example of a sub-Saharan African country with dramatically decreasing infant mortality.


NIGERIA. The 2011 Nigeria Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey summary report shows, as in Niger, a high level of fertility, with no apparent decline. The TFR was reported as 5.7 children per woman, the same as in the 2003 and 2008 DHS surveys. In the country’s Northeast and Northwest Zones, however, the TFR was 7.2 and 6.7, respectively. TFRs in northern zones have been historically higher due to social and cultural preferences, with surveys documenting that women desire eight or more children. In 1981-1982, the National Fertility Survey had put the country’s TFR at 6.3, so that Nigeria’s TFR appears to have declined only by 0.6 children in 30 years. The rate of childbearing among young women ages 15 to 19 was 89 births annually per 1,000 women, down from 121 in 2008. That rate was quite a bit higher in the north.

Total Fertility Rate, Nigeria, in Four Surveys


In the survey, 18 percent of currently married or in-union women said that they were using some form of family planning, up from 15 percent in 2008. Infant mortality was 97 deaths to infants below age 1 per 1,000 live births but that was an increase from 75 in 2008. In the Northeast Zone, the rate was 114, and was 123 in the Northwest Zone.

Regional pattern of fertility in Western Africa:

it's probably dropped in Nigeria, just guessing.

Why won't it increase when the high rate of child abuse