World Fertility and Family Planning 2020: Highlights (ST/ESA/SER.A/440)
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World Fertility and Family Planning 2020 Highlights ST/ESA/SER.A/440 Department of Economic and Social Affairs Population Division World Fertility and Family Planning 2020 Highlights United Nations New York, 2020 The Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat is a vital interface between global policies in the economic, social and environmental spheres and national action. The Department works in three main interlinked areas: (i) it compiles, generates and analyses a wide range of economic, social and environmental data and information on which States Members of the United Nations draw to review common problems and take stock of policy options; (ii) it facilitates the negotiations of Member States in many intergovernmental bodies on joint courses of action to address ongoing or emerging global challenges; and (iii) it advises interested Governments on the ways and means of translating policy frameworks developed in United Nations conferences and summits into programmes at the country level and, through technical assistance, helps build national capacities. The Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs provides the international community with timely and accessible population data and analysis of population trends and development outcomes for all countries and areas of the world. To this end, the Division undertakes regular studies of population size and characteristics and of all three components of population change (fertility, mortality and migration). Founded in 1946, the Population Division provides substantive support on population and development issues to the United Nations General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council and the Commission on Population and Development. It also leads or participates in various interagency coordination mechanisms of the United Nations system. The work of the Division also contributes to strengthening the capacity of Member States to monitor population trends and to address current and emerging population issues. Notes The designations employed in this report and the material presented in it do not imply the expression of any opinions whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The term “country” as used in this report also refers, as appropriate, to territories or areas. This report is available in electronic format on the Division’s website at www.unpopulation.org. For further information about this report, please contact the Office of the Director, Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations, New York, 10017, USA, by Fax: 1 212 963 2147 or by email at [email protected]. Suggested citation: United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2020). World Fertility and Family Planning 2020: Highlights (ST/ESA/SER.A/440). This work was supported, in part, by Grants No. OPP1183453, Making Family Planning Count, from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Official symbols of United Nations documents are composed of capital letters combined with numbers, as illustrated in the above citation. Front cover photo credit: Family planning and newborn care in Nigeria, 2018. The Global Financing Facility/ Dominic Chavez Back cover photo credit: Changing lives: Ante and post natal care for mums and babies in Orissa, India, 2011. UK Department for International Development/Pippa Ranger Published by the United Nations Sales No.: E.20.XIII.2 ISBN: 978-92-1-148321-5 eISBN: 978-92-1-004369-4 Copyright © 2020 by United Nations, made available under a Creative Commons license (CC BY 3.0 IGO) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ What is World Fertility and Family Planning 2020 Highlights? In recognition of the 25th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in 1994, governments reaffirmed the importance of the Programme of Action and its further implementation for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). The emphasis on universal access to a full range of safe and reliable family planning methods, which help couples and individuals to realise their right to decide freely and responsibly on the number, spacing and timing of births, remains as critical today as it did in 1994. The growing use of contraceptive methods in recent decades has resulted not only in improvements in health-related outcomes such as reduced unintended pregnancies, high-risk pregnancies, maternal mortality, and infant mortality, but also in improvements in schooling and economic outcomes, especially for girls and women. Beyond the impacts of contraceptive use at the individual level, there are benefits at the population level. From a macroeconomic perspective, reductions in fertility enhance economic growth as a result of reduced youth dependency and an increased number of women participating in paid labour. Continued rapid population growth presents challenges for achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa where countries must provide health-care services, education and eventually employment opportunities for growing numbers of children and young people. Long-term global population trends are driven largely by trends in fertility. It is therefore important to understand the relationship between contraceptive use and fertility, especially in high-fertility contexts, because of the implications for triggering or speeding up the demographic transition, and harnessing a demographic dividend. World Fertility and Family Planning 2020: Highlights presents new evidence on trends in contraceptive use and fertility, as well as insights into the relationship between contraceptive use and fertility at the global, regional and national levels for women of reproductive age. This publication draws predominantly from the 2019 revision of the World Population Prospects and Estimates and Projections of Family Planning Indicators 2019. Contents What is World Fertility and Family Planning 2020 Highlights? ........................... iii World Fertility and Family Planning 2020 Highlights: Key messages ...............1 Introduction ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������3 Data and methods �����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������7 Trends in fertility ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������9 Trends in family planning ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������13 The relationship between contraceptive use and fertility ..............................17 Policy implications for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals �����23 References �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������25 Annex table: Key indicators ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������29 World Fertility and Family Planning 2020: Highlights 1 World Fertility and Family Planning 2020 Highlights: Key messages 1. Globally, women are having fewer 3. Although fertility in 2019 was higher babies, but fertility rates remain high in in sub-Saharan Africa compared to other some parts of the world. The global fertility regions, a number of countries in this region rate declined from 3.2 live births per woman have seen large declines in total fertility in in 1990 to 2.5 in 2019. In sub-Saharan Africa, recent years. Between 2010 and 2019, 7 of the the region with the highest fertility levels, 10 countries with the largest reductions in the total fertility fell from 6.3 births per woman total fertility rate were in sub-Saharan Africa: in 1990 to 4.6 in 2019. Over the same period, Chad, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Sierra Leone, fertility levels also declined in Northern Africa Somalia and Uganda. and Western Asia (from 4.4 to 2.9), in Central and Southern Asia (4.3 to 2.4), in Eastern and 4. Globally, the level of fertility is expected South-Eastern Asia (2.5 to 1.8), in Latin America to continue declining. The global level of and the Caribbean (3.3 to 2.0), and in Oceania fertility is expected to reach 2.2 live births per excluding Australia and New Zealand1 (4.5 woman in 2050 and 1.9 in 2100, according to to 3.4). In Australia and New Zealand and in the United Nations medium-variant projection. Europe and Northern America, fertility in 1990 The level of fertility in sub-Saharan Africa is was already below 2.0 live births per woman, projected to fall to 3.1 births per woman in and it remained so in 2019, with an average 2050 and to 2.1 in 2100. of 1.8 births per woman in Australia and New 5. Today, many more women of reproductive Zealand and 1.7 in Europe and Northern age are using some form of contraception than America. in 1990. Worldwide, in 2019, 49 per cent of all 2. The decline of fertility in sub-Saharan women in the reproductive age range (15-49 Africa has been relatively slow and occurring years) were using some form of contraception, later compared to other regions. In 1950, the an increase from 42 per cent in 1990. total fertility rate was above 6.0 live births per 6. Use of contraceptive methods increased woman in Eastern and South-Eastern Asia (6.1), in all regions between 1990 and 2019. in Northern Africa and Western