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Share of women using modern contraceptive methods

What you should know about this indicator

Contraceptive prevalence, any modern method is the percentage of married women ages 15-49 who are practicing, or whose sexual partners are practicing, at least one modern method of contraception. Modern methods of contraception include female and male sterilization, oral hormonal pills, the intra-uterine device (IUD), the male condom, injectables, the implant (including Norplant), vaginal barrier methods, the female condom and emergency contraception.

Limitations and exceptions: While the data availability on contraceptive use has increased, in many countries the contraceptive use data are available only for married women.

The time frame used to assess contraceptive prevalence may vary. In many surveys, it is left to the respondent to determine what is meant by “currently using” a method of contraception.

Statistical concept and methodology: Contraceptive prevalence rates are obtained mainly from nationally representative household surveys, including: Demographic and Health Surveys; Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys; Contraceptive Prevalence Surveys; Gender and Generations Survey; Reproductive Health Surveys; and World Fertility Surveys. Additional information was provided by other international survey programs and national surveys.

Married women refer to women who are married (defined in relation to the marriage laws or customs of a country) and to women in a union, which refers to women living with their partner in the same household (also referred to as cohabiting unions, consensual unions, unmarried unions, or “living together”).

Source
Multiple sources compiled by World Bank (2024) – processed by Our World in Data
Last updated
May 20, 2024
Next expected update
May 2025
Date range
1961–2021
Unit
% of women ages 15-49

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Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

The World Development Indicators (WDI) is the primary World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially-recognized international sources. It presents the most current and accurate global development data available, and includes national, regional and global estimates.

Retrieved on
May 20, 2024
Retrieved from
https://datacatalog.worldbank.org/search/dataset/0037712/World-Development-Indicators
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
World Bank's World Development Indicators (WDI).

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Citations

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To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:

“Data Page: Share of women using modern contraceptive methods”. Our World in Data (2024). Data adapted from Data compiled from multiple sources by World Bank. Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-women-using-modern-contraceptive-methods [online resource]
How to cite this data

In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

Multiple sources compiled by World Bank (2024) – processed by Our World in Data

Full citation

Multiple sources compiled by World Bank (2024) – processed by Our World in Data. “Share of women using modern contraceptive methods” [dataset]. Data compiled from multiple sources by World Bank, “World Development Indicators” [original data]. Retrieved July 26, 2024 from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-women-using-modern-contraceptive-methods