10 twenties. But programs do less well in reaching those women at the extremes of the childbearing years, those under 20 or over 40, for whom the risks of pregnancy are greatest.

Parity. Contraceptive use increases sharply from parity 0 to parity 3 but remains fairly steady thereafter (Population Reports, 1985). Use is more common after a woman has had 2-3 children. Age and parity obviously are closely related, but each has a strong, independent effect on contraceptive use, controlling for other variables. The implication for family planning programs is clear: improve performance in reaching women at the beginning and end of the reproductive period. Women who have not yet had a child are more likely to be unmarried and young, and therefore more likely both to seek abortion and/or compromise their life opportunities through early childbearing. Higher parity women (those with four or more live births) face higher health risks from pregnancy than women with fewer children and therefore represent a high priority target group for family planning programs.

Education. Demand for family planning tends to be low where educational levels are low and mortality is high (Population Encyclopedia, 1982). Family planning programs were least effective from the seventies to the early eighties where female educatioxual levels were low. The effect of education on contraceptive use tends to be somewhat less in the case of strong family planning programs, e.g. Indonesia, South Korea, Sri Lanka. Education of the male spouse or partner also results in higher use of contraception (Population Encyclopedia, 1982).

Residence. Urban dwellers are more likely than rural inhabitants to practice family planning. Part, but not all, of this relates to higher educational attainment among urban dwellers. The differential can be dramatic, as in Syria in the late seventies where prevalence was 34 percent in urban areas versus 5 percent in rural areas (Population Encyclopedia, 1982). In Colombia and South Korea, however, both strong programs, rural women wanting no more children were as likely as their urban counterparts to be current users (Population Encyclopedia, 1982).

# Family Planning Program Variables

Several factors related to family planning programs and their context also exert important influences on contraceptive acceptance and continued use. As expected, oral contraceptive users tend to be younger and of lower parity than IUD acceptors, who are usually lower in age and parity than sterilization acceptors. A second generalization is that there is a "fairly universal downward trend in the age and parity of acceptors" over time, (Population Encyclopedia, 1982) which relates to the stages of family planning program development. Carrasco (1981) describes three patterns of contraceptive use. In countries where programs are recently established and/or weak and relatively ,lew women use contraception, they tend to be of relatively high age and parity. Where contraceptive prevalence is moderately high, for example, Jordan, older women are "limiters' while some younger and low-parity women, mainly in cities, are 'spacers". Where prevalence is high and family planning services are readily accessible, for example, Costa Rica, "spacers' and "limiters' are roughly equal in number.