ABSTRACT

The rudiments associated with births interval might appear elusive to many that it seriously affects. Even those who claim to know might be acting in ignorance thus neglecting how much they, their offspring and by extension the entire nation are affected by a single decision they make. Nevertheless, this research work was able to examine the picture of birth interval iii Nigeria. The data that was used is a secondary data mainly drawn from the 2003 NDHS. Also, efforts were made to get further relevant facts from (lie 2003 DIIS data for Ghana, Egypt and Kenya as well as the 1998 DHS data for South Africa and the 2004 DIIS data for Cameroon. The data were analyzed using simple descriptive statistics. The results show that average bi rib interval for Nigeria is below' that of the other selected African countries. Also, it varied considerately by the region of residence of the surveyed women. Among the background factors considered, the death of a previous child and the age of mother were observed to have considerable impact on birth interval.