Global Family Planning: Visible Progress, but . . .

The United Nations Population Division has analyzed data from 194 countries and areas on contraceptive use in women of reproductive age (range, 15–49) who are married or in a union. According to projections, global unmet need for contraception — defined as the percentage of such women who want to stop or delay childbearing but are not using contraception — decreased from 15.4% in 1990 to 12.3% in 2010. However, as the world's population grows beyond 7 billion, the number of women with unmet need for contraception continues to grow.

In 2015, the projected total demand (i.e., use plus unmet need) for contraception of any kind will be 962 million women. In all, 233 million women will have unmet need for modern methods of contraception; of these…