WFS Data
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World Fertility Survey
WFS Data

Nepal, 1976 (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: Nepal Fertility Survey
  • Executive agency: Family Planning and MCH Project, Ministry of Health
  • Date of fieldwork: 1976
  • Universe: Ever-married women, 15-49
  • Coverage: National, 98%
  • Size: 5940
  • Weights: Self-weighting
  • Contents: WFS Core Mark 1 + fertility regulation and family planning modules
  • Supplementary surveys: Household members (n = 31,971, self-weighting)

Additional Information

This survey was one of the two in the WFS programme to use male interviewers for the administration of the individual questionnaire, the other being Ghana. Female interviewers, however, were employed for fieldwork in the low altitude zone (terai) of the country.

The content of the questionnaire deviates from the WFS core in two important regards: a complete marriage history was not collected because re-marriage was thought to be rare; method-specific questions on contraception were confined to pill, IUD, sterilization, condom, abstention, 'other'; other named methods were omitted because they were deemed offensive or assumed to be unknown.

Extensive information on contraception availability was collected (knowledge of sources, travelling time to nearest source, recency of last visit, satisfaction, etc. ) but its utility is limited by the low levels of knowledge and use. The number and length of temporary spousal separations in the open and last closed birth interval were ascertained. A complete history of non-live births is available on the file.

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:

  Dr. Tara Bahadur Khatri
Chief
National Family Planning and Maternal-Child Health Project
P.O. Box 820
Ranchayat Plaza
Kathmandu
Nepal

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.

File Description File Type
nphh03.dat Household data. Original WFS format Ascii text file
nphh03.dct Codebook for household data. Original WFS format. Reconstructed from questionnaire. Ascii text file
nphh03.info Additional information about household data. ISI version Ascii text file
npread.me Conditions of release for the original WFS format data Ascii text file
npsr02.dat Individual standard recode data. Original WFS format Ascii text file
npsr02.dct Codebook for individual standard recode data. Original WFS format Ascii text file
npreadh.me Conditions of release for the ISSA format data Ascii text file
npsr02h.dat Individual standard recode data. ISSA format Ascii text file
npsr02h.dic Standard ISSA dictionary for ISSA format data (ISSA program is required to use this file) Binary file (requires ISSA program to use this file)
npsr02h.map Codebook file for the standard recode data. ISSA format Ascii text file

Note: There is no machine-readable codebook for the Nepal household file. The OPR library has a printed version of the dictionary.

Key References

1. Ministry of Health, Nepal Fertility Survey, 1976: First Report, Kathmandu, 1977.

2. Nepal Family Planning and Maternal Child Health Project, Proceedings of National Conference on Nepal Fertility Survey 1976, Kathmandu, 1977.

3. Goldman, N., A.J. Coale and M. Weinstein, The Quality of Data in the Nepal Fertility Survey, WFS Scientific Reports no 6, 1979.


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