Determinants of Desired Number of Children per Woman in Nigeria

Abstract

Knowledge of the factors associated with increase in the population of country plays a key role in curtailing it leading to its control. This article presented a three-level regression analysis, using survey data from 2013 Nigeria Demographic Health Survey (NDHS). It investigated individual factors that were thought to be associated with the desired number of children by women who have not given birth and also assessed the effect of the hierarchical structure of the data. The model provided parameter and variance estimates at all levels. It was evident that variation in the desired number of children stems out from the hierarchical structure of the data. The varying intercept with individual level predictor model was better in predicting the variation in the desired number of children than varying both intercept and coefficient model. Findings show that women with lower status in terms of education and wealth index have higher desire to have more children than women with better status.