ABSTRACT

This project work studies the family size preference among women in Nigeria. The ultimate objective of this study is to predict the future fertility level among women. of age 15 - 49 in Nigeria by desired family size. The data source is the 1981/82 Nigeria fertility survey. The measure of family size preference used in this study is desired family size. The data was collected based on the question 'if you could choose the number of children to Iave in your whole life, how many children would thatCV' A response to this question on the background characteristics qf the surveyed women such as Age, SAge at 1st marriage, level of education, place of residence, region of residence and Religion tan serve as a valid picture of the fertility intentions of the women. At the end of the study, it was concluded that the relationship between these variables and the family size preferences helps to assess the validity of family size preferences in predicting future fertility levels.