Nearly 80 percent of governments in Africa and over half of all governments in Latin America report that birth rates are too high. Family planning effort still lags in many countries. In Asia, just over half of all countries scored moderate or strong in family planning. An alternative measure of a country's commitment to family planning is a government's annual per capita expenditure on family planning services. Almost half of the married women in developing countries use a modern form of contraception.
Regional data show a variety of different patterns, however.
Contraceptive prevalence is significantly higher in Asia and Latin America, ranging from a low of 34 percent in South Central Asia to 53 percent in Latin America and a high of 78 percent in East Asia. Family planning service providers may be too few in number. The ratio of married women ages 15-44 per family planning staff member ranges from a high of 111,235 in the Ivory Coast to a low of 109 in Vietnam. This information was cited in Population Today, June, 1997.