Time since previous birth. Fecund, sexually active women who do not use contraception are likely to have frequent pregnancies, whether they want to or not (183). Thus levels of unmet need are highest among women who have given birth within the last three years. The level of unmet need drops dramatically as the interval since a woman's last birth lengthens.

Data from the 1993 Kenya DHS illustrate this pattern: Most women with unmet need have given birth within the previous 12 to 23 months, while only a few have a birth interval of more than 48 months (see Figure 8). Women classified as having an unmet need who have long intervals since their last births probably are less fecund and less sexually active than others with unmet need. Most of these women are older, with older children. Their numbers are few compared with the large numbers of younger women with unmet need.

Women's age. Almost everywhere, clear relationships emerge between women's age and the level of unmet need when unmet need is divided into its spacing and limiting components. Most unmet need among younger women, like most contraceptive use, is for spacing births, because younger women still want to have more children. Among older women most unmet need (and most contraceptive use) is for limiting births because older women have had as many children as they want, and often more (237). Unmet need for limiting typically peaks among women in their late thirties or early forties and then declines in the 45-49 age group, as in Kenya (see Figure 9). Many women in their forties have become infecund and thus are no longer included in the unmet need category.

Number of children. In developing countries almost all married women want to have children, and they want them soon after marriage. Thus among childless married women there is almost no unmet need for spacing or limiting births. Once women have had their first child, however, unmet need for spacing in some countries decreases with each additional child, while in other countries it peaks after the birth of two children and then decreases with each additional child. In almost all countries unmet need for limiting births increases with each additional child that a woman has. Overall, the trend for limiting and the trend for spacing cancel each other out. As a result, there is no apparent relationship between number of children and the overall level of unmet need (237, 238).

Education. There are two patterns of unmet need related to women's education (18, 237). Outside sub-Saharan Africa better educated women have somewhat less unmet need than women with little or no education, as in Turkey, for example (see Figure 10). In contrast, in most sub-Saharan countries, such as Ghana, levels of unmet need are about the same regardless of women's education levels.

These patterns suggest that outside Africa, although many women at all education levels want to avoid pregnancy, less educated women face more obstacles to using contraception than more educated women. In sub-Saharan Africa, however, women with more education are more interested in avoiding pregnancy than other women but face the same obstacles as other women.

Rural or urban residence. In most countries unmet need is greater in rural areas than in urban areas. In sub-Saharan countries, however, unmet need is either greater in urban areas or about the same as in rural areas (237, 238). In sub-Saharan Africa the pattern of unmet need by residence probably reflects both the greater interest in avoiding pregnancy among urban residents and the limited availability and acceptability of contraception, even in cities. Also, within cities everywhere, slum or squatter neighborhoods are likely to have higher levels of unmet need than elsewhere.