Editing Demographics of Uzbekistan (section)

===Demographic and Health Surveys===

Total fertility rate (TFR) and crude birth rate (CBR):<ref>{{cite web |url=http://dhsprogram.com/pubs/pdf/FR84/FR84.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2014-07-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140728133922/http://dhsprogram.com/pubs/pdf/FR84/FR84.pdf |archive-date=2014-07-28 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! rowspan=2| Year
! colspan=2| Total
! colspan=2| Urban
! colspan=2| Rural
|-
! CBR !! TFR
! CBR !! TFR
! CBR !! TFR
|-
| 1996
| style="text-align:right;"| 27
| style="text-align:right;"| 3,34 (3,1)
| style="text-align:right;"| 23
| style="text-align:right;"| 2,71 (2,5)
| style="text-align:right;"| 29
| style="text-align:right;"| 3,74 (3,4)
|-
| 2002
| style="text-align:right;"| 24,4
| style="text-align:right;"| 2,92
| style="text-align:right;"| 19,8
| style="text-align:right;"| 2,48
| style="text-align:right;"| 27,5
| style="text-align:right;"| 3,21
|}

[[File:Wikiwyprawa 2015 IGP2405.jpg|thumb|right|Uzbek youth]]
In 2002, the estimated TFR was 2.92; Uzbeks 2.99, Russians 1.35, Karakalpak 2.69, Tajik 3.19, Kazakh 2.95, Tatar 2.05, others 2.53; Tashkent City 1.96, Karakalpakstan 2.90, Fergana 2.73; Eastern region 2.71, East Central 2.96, Central 3.43, Western 3.05.<ref>A.I. Kamilov, J. Sullivan, and Z. D. Mutalova, [http://www.measuredhs.com/pubs/pdf/FR143/04Chapter04.pdf Fertility] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926132025/http://www.measuredhs.com/pubs/pdf/FR143/04Chapter04.pdf |date=2007-09-26 }}, Chapter 4 in ''Uzbekistan Health Examination Survey 2002''.</ref>

The high fertility rate during the Soviet Union and during its period of disintegration is partly due to the historical cultural preferences for large families, economic reliance upon agriculture, and the greater relative worth of Soviet child benefits in Uzbekistan.<ref>Cynthia Buckley, "Challenges to Integrating Sexual Health Issues into Reproductive Health Programs in Uzbekistan," Studies in Family Planning 37(3) (Sep. 2006), 157.</ref> Abortion was the preferred method of birth control. Legalized in 1955, the number of abortions increased by 231% from 1956 to 1973.<ref>Magali Barbieri, Elena Dolkigh, and Amon Ergashev. "Nuptiality, Fertility, Use of Contraception, and Family Planning in Uzbekistan," Population Studies: A Journal of Demography (1996) 50: 1, 69-88.</ref> By 1991, the abortion ratio was 39 abortions per 1,000 women of reproductive age per year.<ref>Cynthia Buckley, Jennifer Barrett, and Yakov P. Asminkin, "Reproductive and Sexual Health Among Young Adults in Uzbekistan" Studies In Family Planning (Mar. 2004), 4.</ref>

However, in the past few decades, fertility control methods have shifted considerably from abortion to modern contraceptive methods, especially [[Intrauterine device|IUDs]]. By the mid-1980s IUDS became the main method of contraception through government and organizational policies that aimed to introduce women to modern contraceptives. According to a UHES report from 2002, 73% of married Uzbek woman had used the IUD, 14% male condom, and 13% the pill.<ref>Jennifer Barrett and Cynthia Buckley, "Constrained Contraceptive Choice: IUD Prevalence in Uzbekistan," International Family Planning Perspectives (Jun. 2007), 52.</ref>

The government supported the use of modern contraceptives to control fertility rates because of national economic difficulties that followed the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Thus the government has been influential in determining the popularity of the IUD. Despite family planning programs that educate women on different methods of contraception, the IUD has remained women's first choice of contraception. Word of mouth and social relations also account for the strong preference for the IUD. Nevertheless, factors such as class and level of education have been shown to give women more freedom in their choice of contraception methods.