Family Planning Choice Behavior of Women in Slums in Bangladesh: A Discriminant Analysis

In Bangladesh, the size of the urban population is growing at an alarming rate. Its urban population constituted only five % of the total population in 1961 but rose to 18 % by 1991. According to the latest population census report (1991) about 21 million people live in urban areas (Government of Bangladesh, 1994). By the end of this century, the urban population in Bangladesh will probably account for 26 % of the country's total population and this figure will increase to 37 % by 2015 (World Bank, 1985). The projected number of upeople in the urban areas in Bangladesh will exceed 80 million by 2020 this is equivalent to the entire 1977 population of the country (Khuda and Barkat, 1994). The current annual average growth rate of the urban population is about six % in Bangladesh. In comparison to population growth in urban areas, the population in the rural areas of Bangladesh has a two % growth rate. The urban population growth rate in Bangladesh is one of the highest in Asia (UNICEF, 1993).