Factors associated with unmet need of family planning and its Impact on population growth in Bangladesh

In Bangladesh, fertility was high in the 1950s and declined to fewer than five births per woman in the early or mid-1990s like other developing countries. After that the level of fertility is stalled. The aim of this study is to assess the extent of unmet need for family planning among married women of reproductive age group in Bangladesh and to study the factors related to it. Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey data were used for the study. The results suggest that unmet need for family planning has increased during the last 3 years from time of the survey. The percentage of total unmet need is especially high among rural women, non working women, Muslim women, and women not exposed to media messages on family planning. The regression analysis shows that age, husband-wife communication, sex composition and visitation status of satellite clinic appear to be significant predictor for limiting unmet need. If we can reduce the current unmet need to zero then current met need will be 73 percent which is the required rate of achieving replacement fertility in Bangladesh. New program strategies are required to fulfill the conventional demand for family planning program in Bangladesh.