Abstract

PIP: Spain's National Institute of Statistics carried out 2 major fertility surveys in 1977 and 1985. In the 1977 survey, 5814 interviews were successfully completed with nonsingle women aged 15-49, while in the 1985 survey 8863 women aged 18-49 of all marital statuses were interviewed. Fertility surveys such as these inevitably have some shortcomings, such as the limited sizes of population subgroups and the lack of detail on employment and other relevant variables. In addition, the methodologies followed and social conditions in Spain differed significantly in the 2 surveys, further hampering comparisons. The Spanish Fertility Survey, although eagerly awaited by demographers, has not been extensively exploited, and few attempts have been made to compare findings of the 1977 and 1985 surveys. This work broadly assesses changes between the 2 surveys in the general characteristics of women, attitudes toward family size and pregnancy, and use of contraception. The educational level of women increased between the 2 dates especially at the higher levels, but many of the more educated women were still single in 1985 and their influence has not been fully felt. Fewer women were illiterate in 1985. The number of married women who described themselves as nonpracticing Catholics more than doubled from 16.5% in 1977 to 38.5% in 1985. The proportion of employed married women increased from 25.7% in 1977 to 32.5% in 1985. The average family size of ever-married women declined from 2.50 in 1977 to 2.15 in 1985. 32.0% of women with 1 child did not want more children in 1977, while in 1985 43.4% of women did not want more children than they already had. The proportion of ever-married women with no children increased from 5.4% in 1977 to 11.3% in 1985, while the proportion with 3 or more declined. Although women in all categories of religious practice had smaller families in 1985 than in 1977, family sizes continued to be larger among women describing themselves as practicing Catholics. 64.1% of pregnancies in 1977 and 66.9% in 1985 were described as unplanned, while 17.8% in 1977 and 22.6% in 1985 were desired. The proportion of married women who had ever used an effective contraceptive method increased from 25.1% in 1977 to 65.5% in 1985. 77.0% of single women had never used a contraceptive method in 1985, but 94.1% of single women in stable unions had used an effective method in 1985. Among ever married women in 1977 and 1985 respectively, 21.0% and 18.5% used withdrawal, 10.7% and 18.2% used oral contraceptives, 4.5% and 14.3% used condoms, 0 and 6.7% used IUDs, 5.7% and 4.2% used rhythm, and 3.9% and 2.4% used other methods. The proportion of nonsingle women not using a method at the time of the interview declined from 54.2% in 1977 to 35.6% in 1985. But the use of less effective methods continued to be high.