Method Mix During the Contraceptive Transition

Vladimira Kantorova, United Nations Population Division
Philipp Ueffing , United Nations Population Division
Aisha Dasgupta, United Nations Population Division
Mark Wheldon, United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs

Method-specific contraceptive prevalence varies widely across the world and is a result of past trends in method prevalence that provide evidence of changing preferences, shifts in policy, changes in the healthcare system, and changes in access to various contraceptive methods. Using survey data for the period 1970-2017, we investigate contraceptive method mix (traditional, short-term modern and long-term/permanent modern methods using ternary maps) and we show that the contraceptive transitions in many countries were driven by one or two methods (pill in Morocco, injectables in Indonesia, female sterilization in India and Brazil), similarly to the contraceptive transitions currently under way (e.g. injectables and implants in in sub-Saharan Africa). At higher levels of contraceptive prevalence, the changes in the method mix are slow, and we identify two distinct patterns – first, the changes from traditional to modern methods and second, the shifts from permanent to short-acting methods.

See extended abstract

 Presented in Session 229. Contraceptive Behavior in Developing Countries