Contraceptive prevalence and unmet need for family planning are
key indicators for measuring improvements in access to
reproductive health. The data set World Contraceptive Use 2012
includes country data as of July 2012 on contraceptive
prevalence among married or in-union women for 194 countries or
areas of the world and unmet need for family planning for 111
countries or areas of the world. Detailed trend data on
contraceptive prevalence (total and by type of method) are
available from 1950 to 2012. Unmet need for family planning data
(total, spacing and limiting) are available from 1986 to 2012.
The data set also includes new annual, model-based estimates and
short-term projections from 1990 to 2015 of contraceptive
prevalence (total, modern and traditional methods), unmet need
for family planning (total and for modern methods) and related
indicators. Median estimates with 80 per cent and 95 per cent
uncertainty intervals are provided for 194 countries or areas of
the world and for regions and development