Household Economic Status, Fertility Intention and Contraceptive Use among couples a Peri-urban Community of Ipetumodu

Attempts have been made to explain why acceptance of family planning and actual use of methods remain low in Nigeria. Such factors which mainly include individual and household characteristics are people’s perception about family planning, religion, education and occupation, number of living children as well as the empowerment status of women among others. Little or no effort has been made to examine the effect of family’s wealth and economic status on couples’ attitude to childbearing and the prospect for fertility decline and contraceptive use among Nigerian couples in a peri-urban community. This study is based on the baseline data from a longitudinal couple study in a peri-urban community, Ipetumodu, in Osun State, Nigeria collected between April and May, 2010. The study indicates that couples’ fertility preference and contraceptive use are largely influenced by their socio-economic status. For instance, contraceptive use is least among respondents in the lower quintile (28.6 as against 35.7 among those with upper quintile). The study highlights the role economic status of households in couple’s reproductive behaviour.