Determinants of fertility desire among couples in Nigeria: evidence from DHS

Kolawole E. Odusina, Federal University Oye-Ekiti
Luqman Bisiriyu, Obafemi Awolowo University
Akanni I. Akinyemi, Obafemi Awolowo University

Cross-national surveys focus on total fertility of women and men and indicate high total fertility in Nigeria. However, marital fertility contributes more to total fertility compare to non-marital fertility. Hence, this study focused on determinants of fertility desire of couples in Nigeria. The study used couples’ recode dataset of the 2008 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey. The data were analyzed using Kappa statistics and multinomial logistic regression. In all, 43.35 percent of couples had same level of education, 66.35 percent were both working, less than one quarter of couples claimed they communicated effectively and took decision together, 61.79 percent indicated equal fertility desire, 32.73 percent indicated husbands desired more while 5.48 percent indicated wives desired more. The Kappa test for selected socio-demographic factors and fertility desire indicated poor agreement. The study revealed spousal communication/joint decision making as a significant determinant of fertility desire of couples in Nigeria.