Statistics Service Reports Slight Drop In Fertility Rate, Rise In Child Stunting

Ambassador glosses over UN’s national census inquiries

Ethiopia’s total fertility rate dropped slightly from 4.6 in 2016 to its current level of 4.4, while its child stunting rate grew by two percentage points to 40 percent over the past decade.

These are some of the findings of the fifth Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) conducted by the Ethiopian Statistical Service (ESS) since 2000, and the first one since 2016. The survey was conducted in more than 1,100 woredas covering nearly 19,500 kebeles.

The Service found that fertility is low among adolescents (53 births per 1,000 women aged 15-19), peaks at 211 births per 1,000 among women aged 25-29, and then decreases thereafter. It confirmed that fertility remains significantly higher in rural areas; on average, rural women give birth to 4.5 children in their lifetime, as compared with 3.2 children among urban women.

The Service indicates that 30 percent of women who have ever had a husband or intimate partner reported having experienced physical, emotional, or sexual violence at the hands of their partner at some point in time.

Nearly a quarter of women reported experiencing physical violence, while eight percent said they had experienced sexual violence.

The survey found that women aged 40-49 and those living in rural areas are more likely to experience violence from a husband or partner. The Service also noted that spousal violence is less common with increasing educational levels.

One percent of women and three percent of men aged 15-49 reported having two or more sexual partners during the 12 months prior to the survey.

Among respondents who had intercourse in the past 12 months with a person who was neither their spouse nor lived with them, 21 percent of women and 33 percent of men reported using a condom during their most recent sexual intercourse with such a partner.

Among women who have ever had sexual intercourse, the mean number of lifetime sexual partners is 1.6; among men, the mean is 2.3, according to the Service.

The survey also found that one-third of currently married women are using a contraceptive method.

Meanwhile, the survey indicates that 40 percent of children under the age of five are stunted (short for their age), and 15 percent are severely stunted.

Five percent of children under age five are wasted (thin for their height), one percent are severely wasted, and four percent are overweight, the survey found. Eighteen percent of children under age five are underweight (small for their age), and four percent are severely underweight.

The Service reports the infant mortality rate over the past 10 years was 39 deaths per 1,000 live births, while the child mortality rate was 13 deaths per 1,000 children surviving to age 12 months, and the overall under-five mortality rate was 51 deaths per 1,000 live births.

Apart from the DHS, the constitution mandates a national population and housing census every 10 years. However, the last census was conducted in 2007, and although the government had previously announced plans to conduct one this year, there is nothing on the ground to suggest it will.

This week, during a review of Ethiopia’s report to the UN Experts of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the subject of a national census was broached by members of the committee.

However, the Ethiopian delegation, which was led by Tsegab Kebebew Daka and included experts from the Ministry of Justice, did not respond to the query.