Kenya, 1977-78 (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: Kenya Fertility Survey
• Executive agency: Central Bureau of Statistics
• Date of fieldwork: 1977-78
• Universe: All women, 15-50
• Coverage: National, 95%
• Size: 8100
• Weights: Weighted to adjust for deficiencies in the sample frame
• Contents: WFS Core Mark 1 + FOTCAF module
• Supplementary surveys: Household members (N = 46,101, weighted)

Additional Information

This survey formed part of the National Integrated Sample Survey Programme and used the multi-purpose master sample frame. The entire North-Eastern Province and a few other districts, comprising an estimated 5 per cent of the total population, were excluded. In rural areas, the household sample was selected systematically from a complete enumeration of sample clusters which took place as part of the 1977 National Demographic Survey. In urban areas, a special listing was conducted. The questionnaire was available in eight local languages, plus Swahili and English. The fieldwork was carried out in three separate regional phases.

Although the full family planning module was not used, the following extra items were collected: knowledge, ever-use and use in last twelve months of family planning sources; travel mode and time to nearest source; nature of last source used, waiting time, whether satisfied and whether intends to re-visit; whether family planning use was considered in last twelve months.

Current marriages were classified into monogamous and polygynous, and number of co-wives and rank of respondent were ascertained.

The definition of female employment (ie work for money) deviated from the normal WFS treatment, which used a more liberal definition.

The household members file contains a detailed set of derived variables concerning household composition.

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 household data, and the individual standard recode data and dictionary, in the original WFS format. In addition, the individual standard recode data and dictionary dictionary are available in ISSA format. The table below lists the file names and descriptions.

Note: There is no machine-readable codebook for the Kenya household file. The Princeton University Stokes library has a printed questionnaire for the household survey which has column numbers indicated.

Key References

1. Central Bureau of Statistics, Kenya Fertility Survey, 1977-78: First Report, Nairobi, 1980/81.

2. Henin, R.A., A. Korten and L.H. Werner, Evaluation of Birth Histories: a Case Study of Kenya, WFS Scientific Reports no 36, 1982.

3. Mosley, W.H., L.H. Werner and S. Becker, The Dynamics of Birth Spacing and Marital Fertility in Kenya, WFS Scientific Reports no 30, 1982. (Shorter version in Social Perspectives, 6(5), 1981.)