Over the past four decades, couples in the developing world have experienced a revolution in their ability to control their fertility. In the 1970s, the average couple in a developing nation had five children. From 1994 to 2005, the average was 2.5.
But progress in making contraceptives available to those who want them has slowed in recent years, according to a study by the Guttmacher Institute and the United Nations Population Fund. Between 2003 and 2008, the number of women in the developing world using contraceptives rose by roughly 20 million women a year. From 2008 to 2012, the annual increase was just 10 million.
The issue is not a lack of interest in family planning among people in the developing world. The study found that 222 million women in developing countries want to avoid pregnancy but aren’t using modern contraception. That number is down slightly from 226 million in 2008, but progress varies by region. Eastern Africa and Southeast Asia have increased the use of modern contraception (meaning anything except the rhythm method or withdrawal), while Western and Middle Africa—where contraceptive use is very low—have seen little change.
John Bongaarts, vice president of the Population Council, told the Washington Post that the most important factor in the adoption of contraception is the level of buy-in from nations’ governments. In places with high levels of rivalry among ethnic groups or nations, governments tend to oppose efforts to reduce population growth.
Bongaarts said pro-contraception policies became less popular overall in the 1990s when many people worried that AIDS would prove devastating to population levels, particularly in Africa. Despite the disease, he said, the continent’s population has continued to grow, and contraception is becoming more attractive as a way to conserve natural resources and reduce the demands on resources like schools and hospitals created by growing numbers of people.
The new report finds the current level of contraceptive care in the developing world costs $4 billion a year but saves $5.6 billion in maternal and newborn health services alone—not counting other economic impacts of a rising population. Fully meeting the need for modern contraceptives would require an additional $4.1 billion annually.
Main photo credit: Dave Proffer/Flickr