1 over 30%
2 20% to 29%
3 10% to 19%
4 5% to 9%
5 less than 5%
1 0 to 5
2 5 to 10
3 10 to 20
4 20 to 30
5 30 to 40
6 40+
7 No Data

Unmet Need for Family Planning

What does it mean ?

This indicator is the percentage of women aged 15-49 (of reproductive age) in marital or consensual unions who do not want any more children or want to delay the birth of their next child for at least two years, but are not using contraception.

Why does it matter ?

Women who are able to practice family planning do better in terms of their socio-economic status, education, empowerment and health. The percentage of women who have an unmet need for family planning can tell us about the reach and quality of a country's healthcare system.

How is it collected ?

A national survey was undertaken in each country from a representative sample of households where women were asked if they would like more children, or to wait to become pregnant again, or have they finished childbearing. Those that could conceive were asked if they used contraception. A woman had an unmet need for contraception if she did not want any more children or wanted to delay her next birth for at least two years, but was not using contraception.

Millenium Development Goals Indicators, United Nations Statistics Division, http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/Data.aspx UN STATS Millenium Development Indicator Database 2014 (most recent data 1996 – 2014)

Newborn Mortality Rate

What does it mean ?

Newborn (or neonatal) mortality rate refers to the number of deaths of newborn babies(neonates) that occur between birth and the first completed 28 days of life. It is measured as the number of deaths in the first 28 days per every 1000 live births in a given year or period. A live birth refers to any baby that is born that shows signs of life outside of the womb.

Why does it matter ?

The majority of child deaths occur in the first month of life. The newborn mortality rate provides us with a general measure of the health environment during the earliest stages of life. It is a useful indicator of the quality of care at birth in a country. Reducing newborn mortality globally forms part of Sustainable Development Goal 3.2, to end preventable deaths of newborns and children under 5 years of age.

How is it collected ?

If a country has a full birth and death registration system, then calculating Newborn (or Neonatal) Mortality Rates (NMR) is simple as all births and deaths are recorded. Where registration systems are incomplete, information on the births and deaths of babies are obtained from household surveys where women are asked about every baby they have given birth to and how long the child survived or population censuses. To calculate the mortality estimate, the data from these sources are analysed statistically using a particular model designed by the UN Inter-Agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation.

NMR 2018 - World Bank. 2020. Mortality rate, neonatal (per 1,000 live births). https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.DYN.NMRT [Accessed 9 March 2020]