Over the past half‐century, most countries have made progress through their demographic transitions with continuing declines in mortality and fertility. The major driver of fertility decline has been the adoption of contraception by women of reproductive age who increasingly desire smaller families. This paper documents the massive changes in contraceptive behavior that have occurred since 1970 at the global and regional levels and examines contraceptive use differentials by marital status and method. To understand the proximate causes of the rise in contraceptive use, we document the changes in the potential demand for contraception (among women who want to space or limit their childbearing) and the degree to which this potential demand is satisfied by the actual practice of contraception. The paper concludes with a confirmation of the strong inverse relationship between contraceptive use and fertility. The main sources of data for these analyses are comprehensive datasets with country, regional, and global estimates of historical trends in fertility and contraceptive behavior maintained by the Population Division of the United Nations.

中文翻译：

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避孕方法的改变和生育能力的转变


在过去的半个世纪里，大多数国家在人口转型方面取得了进展，死亡率和生育率持续下降。生育率下降的主要驱动因素是育龄妇女采用避孕措施，她们越来越希望拥有更小的家庭。本文记录了自 1970 年以来在全球和区域层面发生的避孕行为的巨大变化，并按婚姻状况和方法研究了避孕药具使用差异。为了了解避孕药具使用增加的直接原因，我们记录了避孕潜在需求的变化（在想要间隔或限制生育的女性中）以及实际避孕实践满足这种潜在需求的程度。该论文最后证实了避孕药具的使用与生育能力之间存在强烈的反比关系。这些分析的主要数据来源是联合国人口司维护的包含国家、区域和全球生育和避孕行为历史趋势估计的综合数据集。