Pakistani women have their first child 3 months sooner after marriage than Indian women: 19 months against 22

How long does it take from marriage to a first child? We at Gallup Pakistan Digital Analytics looked at Pakistan’s DHS 2017-18 and India’s NFHS-4 (2015-16), counting women who haven’t yet had a child rather than dropping them.

In Pakistan:
→ 30% of ever-married women have a first birth within 1 year of marriage. In India it is 23%.

→ 62% have one within 2 years (India: 57%).

→ By year 3 the two countries are level, at 76%. Eventual motherhood is similar. The difference is timing.

Age at marriage matters most.

Girls married at 15 or younger wait a median of 25 months in Pakistan (30 in India). Brides of 23 and above wait 17 months (18 in India). Pakistan is faster at every age at marriage, though the gap is only 1 to 2 months for brides aged 18 and above.

The youngest brides are also the ones who wait longest. In Pakistan, 22% of girls married at 15 or younger have a first birth within a year, against 36% of brides aged 23 and above. They still become mothers earliest in life: at 17 on average, against 27.

Education tells a similar story. In Pakistan, the median wait falls from 22 months for women with no education to 15 for women with higher education. In India it falls from 25 to 20. The pattern holds inside education groups, so it is not education alone.

Source: Pakistan DHS 2017-18; India NFHS-4 2015-16, women’s files, weighted. Analysis by @Gallup Pakistan Digital Analytics.