74-81 Klijzing

cept can serve as a basis for identifying subgroups that are in need of programmatic action. Unmet need rises as more women would like to control their fertility but for various reasons are unable to do so, and it falls as more start practicing contraception. However, high levels of unmet need in a country do not necessarily reflect program failure, nor do low levels always indicate program success. A connection has sometimes been suggested between the transition from high fertility to low fertility and concomitant changes in levels of unmet need: When fertility is high, most couples do not want to limit or space births, or are unaware of the possibility that they can. As a result, levels of contraceptive use and unmet need for contraception are both relatively low. As attitudinal change occurs and more couples want to control their fertility, however, unmet need rises because the demand for family planning exceeds supErik Klijzing is senior research scientist in the faculty of sociology, University of Bielefeld, Germany. The author wishes to thank the Advisory Group of the Fertility and Family Surveys (FFS) program of comparative research for its permission, granted under project identification No. 49, to use the FFS data on which this article is based. The author is also grateful to Teresa Castro Martín, Lynda Clarke, John Ross, Vlada Stankuniene and Laurent Toulemon for their valuable comments on an earlier version. Compliments are also due to the Italian FFS team for spotting a flaw in the original computer program, which led to underestimated levels of unmet family planning needs in the earlier version. Are There Unmet Family Planning Needs in Europe?