Portugal, 1979-80 (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: Portuguese Fertility Survey
• Executive agency: Instituto Nacional de Estatística
• Date of fieldwork: 1979-80
• Universe: Ever-married women, 15-49
• Coverage: National (excluding Azores and Madeira), 100%
• Size: 5148
• Weights: Self-weighting
• Contents: WFS Core Mark 2
• Supplementary surveys: Household (n = 15,115 households (10,879 complete), 37,609 members, self weighting)

Additional Information

This survey represents a bridge between the two main components (developing versus developed countries) of the WFS programme. Because Portugal is a low fertility European country, the survey used the WFS core questionnaire Mark 2 as its departure point. As a survey in a country classified by the United Nations as developing, it was eligible for external financial support and technical co-ordination from WFS headquarters. The sample was based on the National Master Sample. A household enumeration (response rate - 80 per cent) was followed by detailed interviews with ever-married women. The refusal rate for the individual survey was only 2 per cent. Fieldwork started in October 1979 and ended in July 1980 and was conducted by eight teams of female interviewers. The long duration was caused by delays in funding and subsequent attrition of field staff.

The individual questionnaire contains: a full pregnancy history; details of contraceptive use and failure in each pregnancy interval; the classification of each pregnancy as wanted or unwanted. Reasons for wanting or not wanting more children were probed in detail.

The household file is in a non-rectangular format. A record for each household is followed by records for each member.

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, 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.

Key References

1. Instituto Nacional de Estatística, Inquérito Português à Fecundidade: Relatório Principal, Lisbon, 1983. Vol.1 & Vol.2

2. Conim, C., Evaluation of the Portugal Fertility Survey 1979-80, WFS Scientific Reports no 81, 1986.