Over half of Namibia’s unmarried women are already mothers, census shows

More than half of Namibia’s women who have never married have given birth, according to the 2023 Population and Housing Census Fertility Report.

In the report, it has been found that 53.4% of women in Namibia who have never married were already mothers. The figure shows that women are no longer waiting to get married before having children.

||Kharas recorded the highest share of never-married women who are mothers, at 61.6%, while Kavango West had the lowest rate at 46%.

The proportion was almost identical in rural areas (53.7%) and urban areas (53.1%).

However, marriage is still linked to larger families.
Married women had a total fertility rate of 6.7 children, compared with a rate of 3.5 children among never-married women.

The total fertility rate is the average number of children a woman would be expected to have over her lifetime.

“Despite this difference, never-married women can expect to have three children, which shows that marriage is not a requirement for having children in Namibia,” the report states.

Fertility among never-married women has also risen since the 2011 census, which recorded a total fertility rate of 3.1 for the group.

The report identifies education, marital status and employment as key factors shaping fertility.

The analysis revealed that women who were never married, completed secondary school education and are in the labour force experienced the lowest fertility rate, it states.

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