Great New Resources From the UN Population Division

The Population Division of the United Nations today posted some great new resources. In general, I find the UN Population Division to be a terrific go-to place for world and country-level population data, and these updated resources are very useful. Here's how they describe these new data just posted online:

1. World Contraceptive Use 2012
Contraceptive prevalence and unmet need for family planning are key indicators for measuring improvements in access to reproductive health. The data set World Contraceptive Use 2012 includes country data as of July 2012 on contraceptive prevalence among married or in-union women for 194 countries or areas of the world and unmet need for family planning for 111 countries or areas of the world. Detailed trend data on contraceptive prevalence (total and by type of method) are available from 1950 to 2012. Unmet need for family planning data (total, spacing and limiting) are available from 1986 to 2012.

The data set also includes new annual, model-based estimates and short-term projections from 1990 to 2015 of contraceptive prevalence (total, modern and traditional methods), unmet need for family planning (total and for modern methods) and related indicators. Median estimates with 80 per cent and 95 per cent uncertainty intervals are provided for 194 countries or areas of the world and for regions and development groups.
http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/WCU2012/MainFrame.html

2. The Lancet article "National, regional, and global rates and trends in contraceptive prevalence and unmet need for family planning between 1990 and 2015: a systematic and comprehensive analysis" explains the methodology and key results of the model-based annual estimates and short-term projections. The link is here:http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(12)62204-1/abstract
Article free of charge with registration

3. World Marriage Data 2012
Comparable and up-to-date national data on the marital status of the population by age and sex for 221 countries and areas of the world are provided by World Marriage Data 2012 on four key indicators: Marital status of men and women, Currently married men and women, Ever married men and women and Singulate mean age at marriage (SMAM).

For each of these indicators and to the extent that data are available, data are presented for five reference dates: 1970, 1985, 1995, 2005 and the most recent data available. Major sources of data on marital status are censuses, sample surveys and national estimates based on population register data or on estimation methods using census data. Information on the definition of each indicator, data sources and criteria for data source selection, limitations and data coverage is provided in the metadata file. The data set presents data available as of January 2013.
http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/WFD2012/MainFrame.html

4. World Fertility Data 2012
World Fertility Data 2012 provides an up-to-date set of national data on fertility and the timing of childbearing for all countries and areas of the world. Six key indicators are covered: the annual number of births, crude birth rate, age-specific fertility rates, total fertility, mean age at childbearing and the mean number of children ever born.

Data are presented for five reference dates: 1970, 1985, 1995, 2005 and the most recent data available. Major sources of data are civil registration systems, sample surveys and censuses. Information on the definition of each indicator, data sources and criteria for data source selection, limitations and data coverage is provided in the metadata files. The data set presents data available as of January 2013.
http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/WMD2012/MainFrame.html