Sexually active married Filipino women are using modern contraceptives to meet their family planning needs compared to their unmarried counterparts, the Commission on Population and Development (CPD) has disclosed.
In a statement, CPD Executive Director Lisa Grace Bersales said the 2022 data covered Filipino women aged 15 to 49 years old, both married and unmarried.
She said 42 percent of Filipino women in the 15-49 age bracket are using modern contraceptives while only 24 percent were recorded for unmarried women.
While the 2022 data on modern contraceptive prevalence rate (mCPR) is already high, Bersales, however, said that the data in the past years indicate that the use of modern contraceptives for family planning is still short of the ideal one percent yearly increase.
The same data revealed a high unmet need for family planning at 42 percent, compared with only 12 percent for married women—which means that more unmarried but sexually active Filipino women are unsatisfied with their family planning needs.
In addressing the issue, Bersales said there is a need to focus the discussions and action plans on several factors that affect the use of modern contraceptives, including the aspect of education and socio-economic status of women.
“I’m putting on alerts…on which population groups we need to prioritize in terms of fertility issues: women who are less educated, poorer women, as well as the sexually active and unmarried,” said Bersales.
The same factors were observed in terms of fertility rate in the country.
Citing another data, Bersales said the Philippines’ total fertility rate (TRF) is in continuous decline—from 6.0 in 1973 to 1.9 in 2022 but took note of the wide disparity between urban and rural areas.
Comparing the case of Metro Manila and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) for instance, she revealed that the TFR in Metro Manila is at 1.2 while 3.1 in the latter.
This led her to conclude that rural settings have higher TFR than those from urban locations.
She likewise acknowledged that "the level of women’s schooling and socioeconomic status were inversely proportional to their TFR".
Looking at the 2022 National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS), twice more children come from less educated and poorer women,” said Bersales.
From Popcom, the Commission on Population and Development is now using the CPD acronym, saying it will be formally launched during its anniversary next year.