DECREASING FERTILITY: W. Visayas women had fewer kids in 2022, survey says

By Joseph Bernard A. Marzan

The average number of children per woman in Western Visayas continues to decrease in the last 20 years, according to the 2022 National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) presented by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) on Thursday.

The 2022 NDHS indicated that Total Fertility Rate (TFR) in the region was at 2.2 children among women aged 15 to 49 years old.

TFR refers to the average number of children a woman would have by the end of her childbearing years if she bore children at the current age-specific fertility rates.

The number represented a sharp decrease of 0.8 points against previous NDHS collection periods – from 3.8 in 2013 and 3.0 in 2017.

This likewise indicated a steady decrease since the 4.2 TFR logged in the 1993 NDHS. The downward trend had been steady since then, except between 2008 (3.3) and 2013 (3.8).

Out of the 2.2 TFR, 1.6 children were indicated as Total Wanted fertility rates, which reflect the level of fertility that would result if all unwanted births were prevented. This would suggest that women may be having 0.6 more children than they wanted.

The same data set also indicated a 54.8-month interval between consecutive live births, higher than the 2017 interval of 33.5 months, and the 33-month gap recommended by the World Health Organization.

For the 2022 NDHS, information was collected on the number of children among women who have given birth in their lifetime.

The median age at the first sexual intercourse among women 25 to 49 years old is 21.2 years old, lower than that in 2017 (21.4), while that of first marriage (23.3) and first childbirth (23.9) is higher than the respective median ages five years ago (22.0 and 23.3 respectively).

The rate of married women who used any family planning methods has also steadily increased, currently at 60 percent in 2022, a stable spike from 40 percent in 1993.

Those who availed of any modern family planning method is at 43 percent by 2022, also a steady 20 percent rise from 23 percent in 1993.

TEENAGE PREGNANCIES

But the 2022 NDHS also indicated that the number of teenage pregnancies among women 15 to 19 years old rose to 7 percent from 5 percent in 2017. This is also higher than the 2022 national rate of 5 percent.

The recent rate includes 5 percent who have had a livebirth, 2 percent who were currently pregnant at the time of the survey, and less than 1 percent who had pregnancy loss.

Commission on Population and Development (CPD)-6 Regional Director Harold Alfred Marshall connected the region’s TFR decline to opportunities for socioeconomic development.

He cited the implementation of Republic Act No. 10354 (The Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012) and other government programs and policies as factors in lowering of fertility rates.

“In the 1960s, 70s, six [children] to a woman is the average. Now, it’s just at 2.2. Low fertility is the key to speeding up the demographic transition of a country. The significant drop to the replacement level of fertility rate of Region 6 provides both an opportunity and a challenge to local government, down to the household level,” said Marshall.

“The sharp decline in TFR is not a cause for alarm since the phenomenon could be grabbed as an opportunity for sectoral improvements to accept socio-economic development of Region 6 to reduce poverty and to improve labor force participation,” he added.

But Marshall also warned that a continuing low fertility rate may also pose challenges, including shrinking labor force, prolonged fertility decline, ageing population, threats to financial sustainability, migration dependency due to low fertility, and irreversible population decline.

The NDHS is a regular survey conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority every five years, first conducted by its predecessor agencies in 1968.

It forms part of the worldwide Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) program designed to collect, analyze, and disseminate demographic data on fertility, family planning, and maternal and child health.