This section elicits the respondents' opinions and perceptions of their cities' fertility rate, family planning services and supplies, and contraceptive use. 76% of the 183 respondents replied that the birth rate was satisfactory or that it was too low. This corresponds to the responses indicating low natural growth mentioned earlier in this report. Only 5 respondents (India-2, Pakistan-3) indicated that their cities' birth rate was much too high.

Slightly more than 60% of the respondents indicated that family planning services and supplies were "fully available to all". Very few respondents indicated that services and supplies were "not very available" or "not available at all".

a. Perception of Fertility Rate: Respondents were asked to evaluate their city's fertility rate. There was a very high rate of response (183 of the 187) to this question. Figure 7-1 shows the percentage of responses in each category. Over half the respondents considered fertility rates as being satisfactory. 20% considered fertility rates as being too low, while the remaining 24% considered them as being too high or much too high. Table 7-1 gives the number of responses in each category by country.

Figure 7-1
Perception of Fertility Rates

Table 7-1
Perceptions of Fertility Rates by Country

China, Japan, The Philippines, and Thailand reported views of fertility that are consistent with responses given in the pervious round. As compared to the responses given in the previous round, China has 1 additional respondent reporting fertility rates as "too low." Japanese respondents indicated slightly more satisfaction with fertility rates than they did in the previous round. Respondents from The Philippines are consistently satisfied with fertility rates or see them as being too high. Only 1 of the 7 Thai respondents saw fertility rates as being high rather than satisfactory.

India shows more respondents being satisfied with fertility rates than in the past. Apparently, 60% of the respondents see their cities' fertility rates as satisfactory. Even so, there are still a significant number of respondents who see fertility rates in their cities as being too high or much too high.

Indonesia saw a near doubling of the number of respondents who indicated fertility rates were too low in their cities. Despite this, more respondents also indicated that the fertility rates were too high.

While no South Korean respondent indicated that fertility rates were too low in the last round, 6 did so in this round. Nonetheless, 5 respondents still see fertility rates as being too high.

Malaysia indicated the most satisfaction with fertility rates. Of its 16 respondents, only 1 respondent was not satisfied. This respondent saw fertility as being too high.

Respondents from Pakistan continue to see fertility rates as being unsatisfactorily high. The responses "too high" or "much too high" were selected more than three times as often as was "satisfactory." No respondent from Pakistan indicated the opinion that fertility rates were too low in their city.

Table 7-2 shows the perception of fertility rates by region. As in other areas of this report, perception of fertility differs greatly by region. East Asia, especially Japan, is more urbanized than Southeast Asia and South Asia. This more complete urbanization couples with high economic development to give East Asian countries the lowest fertility rate.

While more than five times more East Asian respondents indicate fertility is too low rather than too high, these numbers are almost equal for Southeast Asia. Slightly more Southeast Asian respondents indicate that fertility is too high rather than too low.

The South Asian respondents indicate a situation that is nearly the exact opposite of that in East Asia. A majority of South Asian respondents indicated that fertility rates were too high or much too high in their cities. All responses indicating a much too high fertility rate were from South Asia.

Table 7-2
Perception of Fertility Rate by Region

Table 7-3 shows the general view of fertility rates by population. In contrast to table region, population does not seem to be a strong factor in determining perception of fertility rates. In fact, cities with the smallest populations (Under 200,000) and those with the largest populations (Over 800,000) report almost identical views of fertility rates.

Table 7-3
General View of Fertility Rate by Population

Table 7-4 shows the respondents' view of fertility rates in their cities by country development. There is a clear difference between Japan and South Korea and the other countries. 39% of the 61 cities from Japan and South Korea reported fertility rates as being too low. Only 5.0% of these 61 cities indicated their cities' fertility rates as being too high, and no respondent said their city's fertility rates was much too high.

In contrast to Japan and South Korea, only 10% of the 126 cities from respondents from other countries viewed their cities' fertility rates as being too low. 29% of the respondents from these 126 cities indicated they thought their cities' fertility rates were too high, and 4.0% indicated fertility rates were much too high.

Table 7-4
Fertility Rate by Country's Development

b. Availability of Family Planning Services & Supplies: Figure 7-2 and table 7-2 show the availability of family planning services and supplies. Two-thirds of the 179 respondents replying to this section indicated that family planning services and supplies are fully available in their cities. An additional 28% indicated that these services and supplies were moderately available. Only 1 1 respondents indicated that family planning services and supplies were not very available. Only Japan had respondents indicate that family planning was not available.

Figure 7-2
Availablitity to Family Planning Services & Supplies
N=179

While all countries indicated family planning services and supplies were, for the most part, available, respondents from Japan indicated the least amount of availability. Japan was the only country to have respondents who indicated that family planning was not available. Both Japan and South Korea had three respondents each who indicated that family planning services and supplies were not very available. Japan also had the highest number of respondents (7) who failed to provide information here. The availability of family planning services and supplies is shown by country in table 7-5.

Table 7-5
Availability to Family Planning Services and Supplies
by Country

Table 7-6 divides the responses to this section by region. As can be expected from the previous table, East Asian respondents indicated the least amount of availability. Even though four respondents from Southeast Asia indicated family planning services and supplies were not very available, this region had the highest percentage (83%) of respondents reporting that family services and supplies were fully available.

Table 7-6
Availability to Family Planning Services and Supplies
by Region

Table 7-7 divides the information regarding availability of family planning services and supplies by city population. From this data, we can see that cities in the two categories of cities with smaller populations indicated lower availability of family planning services and supplies. Only 1 respondent from the two categories of cities with larger populations indicated less than moderate availability. This contrasts with the 13 respondents from the smaller cites who indicated less than moderate availability.

Table 7-7
Availability to Family Planning Services and Supplies
by Population

Table 7-8 is a cross comparison of responses regarding the availability of family planning services and supplies and the perception of the fertility rate. This table is divided by level of country development.

As indicated above, Japan and Korea reported relatively limited availability to family planning services and supplies. Despite this, both countries report low fertility rates. In contrast, the other countries generally reported high availability of family planning services and supplies, yet they also perceive fertility rates as being high. The high availability of family planning in the countries of lower economic development is likely an effort to deal with their high fertility rates. They are more vigorously implementing family planning programs. Also, there appear to be factors other than family planning at work in Japan and Korea that are keeping their fertility rates low.

Table 7-8
Family Planning by Fertility Rate
(by Country Development)

Table 7-9 is another cross comparison. Here the perception of the status of women is compared to the availability of family planning services and supplies. Like table 7-8, there appears to be other factors influencing this relationship. Even though a majority of responses indicated women's status as average and family planning services and supplies and full availability, Japan and South Korea indicated approximately equal numbers of responses for family planning categories in the better than average status row as in the worse than average status row. This trend is the same in the other countries for the much better than average status row and the worse than average row.

Table 7-9
Status of Women by Family Planning
(by Country Development)

c. Contraceptive Use: Respondents gave the official or estimated percent of eligible couples who use contraceptives. Two-thirds of the respondents did not provide information in either the "official" or the "estimate" areas of this section. For the official rates of contraceptive use given, as was the case with poverty, the answers given tended to fall at either end of the range. Both "less than 50%" and "more than 90%" had 13 of the 61 replies. The estimated rate showed far lower rates with 46 of the 77 respondents indicating "less than 50%" use. Answers in the intermediate range require clinical and family planning surveys, which may not always be available. Figures 7-3 and 7-4 give the percentage of respondents for each category of the official and estimated rate of contraceptive use. Table 7-2 gives the number of respondents for each category by country.

Figure 7-3
Contraceptive Use
(Known Rate)

Figure 7-4
Contraceptive Use
(Estimated Rate)

Table 7-10
Official and Estimated % of
Contraceptive Use by Country