Mauritania, 1981 (WFS)

The following description of this survey appeared in the 1991 edition of Dynamic Database: A Catalogue of Survey Data Files, Voorburg: International Statistical Institute.

Basic Information

• Name of survey: Enquête Nationale Mauritanienne sur la Fécondité
• Executive agency: Direction de la Statistique et de la Comptabilité Nationale
• Date of fieldwork: 1981
• Universe: Ever-married women, 12-50
• Coverage: Sedentary population (65% of total)
• Size: 3500
• Weights: Self-weighting within domains
• Contents: WFS Core Mark 1 + FOTCAF module
• Supplementary surveys: Household members (n = 85,987, self-weighting within domains)

Additional Information

The Mauritanian Fertility Survey is confined to the sedentary population. Nomadic peoples were excluded, partly because of problems of access and partly from the difficulty of defining a sampling frame.

The household and individual surveys were done on a single visit but by different interviewers, male for the households, female for the individual women. 1-in-4 eligible women found in the households was selected for the individual interview.

The household survey ascertained basic characteristics of the household members and details of life-time and current fertility for women aged 12 or more. Characteristics of the household and head of household and details of deaths in the preceding 36 months were also collected. A detailed set of derived household composition variables have been added to the file.

As in the Nigerian and Benin WFS surveys, a modification of the FOTCAF module was used, whereby information was gathered about live births rather than pregnancy intervals. However, unlike Benin and Nigeria information was elicited only for the open and last closed interval. In a major departure from the WFS core questionnaire, prompted knowledge of contraceptive methods was omitted with the probable consequence of under-reporting of use (see also Pakistan).

Place of and assistance at delivery of recently born children is recorded. The existence of co-wives and respondents' rank are ascertained.

An ecological survey was also conducted but the data from this are not available.

Release Conditions

Data may be used for academic research, provided that credit is given in any publication resulting from the research to the agency that conducted the survey and that two copies of any publication are sent to:

Public Use Files

Available files include the individual standard recode data and dictionary, and the supplemental survey data and dictionary, in the original WFS format. The table below lists the file names and descriptions.

Key References

1. Direction de la Statistique et de la Comptabilité Nationale, Enquête Nationale Mauritanienne sur la Fécondité 1981, Nouakchott, 1984. Vol.1 & Vol.2

2. Cheik, Ould Sidi Abderrahmane, Evaluation de l'Enquête Nationale Mauritanienne sur la Fécondité, (appendix: Mortality in Mauritania, I. Timaeus), WFS Scientific Reports no 83.