The New York Times reports that China is considering a move away from its one-child-per-couple policy, though any changes would be gradual and would not mean an end to family planning policies. China’s fertility rate is now very low, and the nation faces an aging population, especially in urban areas.

The number of abortions performed in the US has fallen to the lowest number since 1976, according to statistics from the Guttmacher Institute (Washington Post). A report by Rachel K. Jones of the Guttmacher Institute is scheduled to appear in the March issue of Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, and a news release with a link to the study is available on the Guttmacher Web site.

DHS has published 3 new working papers:

• Internal Migration and the Use of Reproductive and Child Health Services in Peru (Lekha Subaiya)
• Trends in Primary and Secondary Abstinence among Kenya Youth (Chi Chiao & Vinod Mishra)
• Spousal Agreement on Waiting Time to Next Birth in Sub-Saharan Africa (Tesfayi Gebreselassie & Vinod Mishra)

After 14 years of decline, the teen birth rate increased significantly between 2005 and 2006, according to the National Center for Health Statistics (Washington Post).  The statistics are included in a new NCHS report, Births: Preliminary Data for 2006.

Preliminary datasets are now available for the 2006 Niger Demographic and Health Survey. PRI researchers may request it from the Data Archivist.

Data for the 2006 Nepal Demographic and Health Survey are now available. PRI researchers may request it from the Data Archivist

Population Issues in the 21st Century: The Role of the World Bank (PDF) was produced by the Health, Nutrition, and Population Family (HNP) of the World Bank’s Human Development Network. The paper discusses “some obstacles and opportunities presented by opulation processes in order to prioritize areas for investment and analytical work as background nformation for the 2007 HNP Sector Strategy.”

The Demographic and Health Survey has released a new report titled “Women’s Health in Tanzania: Key Findings from the 2004-05 Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey and the 2003-04 Tanzania HIV/AIDS Indicator Survey”. The report smmarizes the major survey findings about women’s education, status, fertility, health and other significant measures. Click here to view and download a free copy of the report in pdf format.

A new working paper from the National Bureau for Economic Research (NBER) examines the link between a country’s fertility rate and the real effective exchange rate, confirming the theory that a country with declining fertility “can be expected to have higher savings, lower investment, a current account surplus, and accordingly a real depreciation.” (Fertility and the Real Exchange Rate, by Andrew K. Rose & Saktiandi Supaat)

According to a new report from the Guttmacher Institute, millions of women in developing countries have an unmet need for contraception and are thus at risk for unintended pregnancy. Progress has been made in many regions, but has been slow in sub-Saharan Africa, according to study authors.