Nearly half of married Rwandan women aged 15 to 49 do not want to have more children or have chosen permanent contraception, according to the 2025 Rwanda Demographic and Health Survey (RDHS).
The survey, conducted by the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR) in partnership with the Ministry of Health, shows that 47 percent of married women in this age group either do not wish to have another child or have undergone permanent sterilisation.
The findings, released in June 2026, indicate that family planning decisions are becoming increasingly common among Rwandan couples, with many seeking to determine the timing and size of their families.
Among married women aged 15–49, 37 percent said they wanted to wait at least two years before having another child, while 13 percent wanted to have another child within two years.
Among married men in the same age group, 43 percent said they did not want another child or had undergone permanent contraception. Another 43 percent preferred to wait two years or more before having another child, while 13 percent wanted another child within two years.
The survey found that the desire for more children decreases as the number of children already born increases.
Among married women without children, 91 percent wanted to have a child soon, compared with only 2 percent among women with six or more children.
A similar pattern was observed among men, with 64 percent of married men without children wanting a child soon, while only 2 percent of those with six or more children expressed the same desire.
The proportion of married men who do not want more children rises sharply with the number of children they already have, increasing from 14 percent among men without children to 90 percent among those with six or more children.
The report shows that the average number of children Rwandan couples desire has declined. Among currently married women, the desired family size fell from 3.7 children in 2019–2020 to 3.3 children in 2025.
Overall, both men and women reported an average preferred family size of 3.2 children.
The survey also found that 67 percent of births and pregnancies occurring in the three years before the survey were wanted at the time they happened. Meanwhile, 24 percent were pregnancies that occurred earlier than planned, and 9 percent were not wanted.
The share of wanted births increased from 58 percent in 2019–2020 to 67 percent in 2025, indicating improved family planning among households.
NISR reported that Rwanda’s wanted fertility rate stands at 2.8 children per woman, while the actual fertility rate is 3.7 children per woman. This means women are having, on average, 0.9 more children than their preferred number.
The gap between actual fertility and desired fertility has continued to narrow over time, declining from 1.5 children per woman in 2005 to 1.1 children in 2014–2015.
