Levels of Socioeconomic Disparity in Family Planning Indicators: A Comparison of Selected High and Low High Prevalence Countries

Jacob A. Adetunji, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)

Using DHS data from six member countries of Family Planning 2020, this paper investigates the extent of socioeconomic disparity in selected key family planning indicators. The objective is to assess whether socioeconomic differentials vary significantly between countries with high modern contraceptive prevalence rates (MCPR) and those with low MCPR. The results of the analysis show that socioeconomic differentials in FP indicators were greater among women in low-prevalence countries than among those in high-MCPR countries. For example, while MCPR among women in the top wealth quintile was almost the same as those in the lowest quintile in Zimbabwe, Indonesia and Bangladesh, gaps in MCPR between the rich and the poor was very wide in low-prevalence countries of Mozambique, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. Similar results were shown in the proportion of demand satisfied with modern methods. The implications of these results for family planning programs in low prevalence settings are discussed.