[Fertility Survey, Metropolitana region, Chile 1989]. / Encuesta de Fecundidad, Region Metropolitana, Chile 1989.

PIP: A fertility study was carried out by the Chilean Association for Protection of the Family (APROFA) in metropolitan Chile in 1989 to update data from the most recent fertility study in 1974. A random and self-weighted sample of 600 women aged 15-44 in 32 urban communes of the metropolitan region were interviewed in November 1989. 55% were married or in stable consensual unions, 39.1% were single, and 5.9% were separated, divorced, or widowed. 24.1% had primary educations, 15.5% had some form of higher education, and .2% were illiterate. 64.2% of the women had children, of whom 63.8% had 1 or 2. Only 2.1% had 6 or more children. 46.2% felt that the ideal family size was 1-2 children and 30.7% that it was 3 children. 40.4% of women with children wanted another child and 59.6% did not. 25.1% of the sample had never had sexual relations, 7.3% had not had sexual relations in the 12 months prior to the interview, and the remaining 67.6% were sexually active. At the time of the survey 6.1% were pregnant and 11.1% had had a birth in the preceding 12 months. 28.3% of these pregnancies were considered unwanted, usually for economic reasons or because the family was considered complete. 55.6% of the sample reported using contraceptives. 48.6% used IUDs, 26.0% used oral contraceptives, 6.9% periodic abstinence methods, and 1.8% barrier methods. Only 7.5% of women aged 15-19 used contraception. Rates of use stabilized after age 25 at about 72%. 80.9% of women married or in union used a method, as did 20.2% of single and 59.3% of separated or divorced women. The data for the survey are still under analysis and all statistics are provisional.^ieng