Nagaland’s fertility rate has risen to 2.0, matching the national average, according to findings from the National Family Health Survey-6.
Share
KOHIMA — Nagaland's Total Fertility Rate (TFR) — the average number of children a woman is expected to have during her lifetime — has increased to 2.0 from 1.7 recorded in the previous National Family Health Survey (NFHS), according to findings from the NFHS-6.
The latest survey places Nagaland on par with the national TFR of 2.0. However, the Sample Registration System Statistical Report 2024, released in May 2026, showed that the country's fertility rate has fallen below the replacement level of 2.1 children per woman, the level generally considered necessary for a population to replace itself from one generation to the next.
The survey revealed a sharp rural-urban divide in fertility levels within the state. Women in rural Nagaland have a fertility rate of 2.4 children, compared to 1.4 among women in urban areas.
At the same time, the proportion of women aged 15-19 years who were already mothers or pregnant at the time of the survey declined to 3.2%, down from 3.8% in the previous survey. The figure stood at 1.8% in urban areas and 4.2% in rural areas.
Also read: Urban Nagaland records higher overweight, obesity rates — NFHS-6
The survey found that 73.6% of currently married women aged 15-49 years were using some form of family planning method.
The total unmet need for family planning among currently married women declined to 5.7%, compared to 9.1% in the previous survey. The indicator refers to women who want to delay or avoid pregnancy but are not using any contraceptive method. Of the total unmet need, 3.9% related to spacing births and 1.8% to limiting births.
The survey further found that 10.2% of women aged 20-24 years were married before the age of 18 years. Similarly, 10.2% of men aged 25-29 years were married before attaining the legal marriageable age of 21 years.
Several maternal and child health indicators showed improvement in the latest survey.
Institutional deliveries, or births taking place in health facilities, increased significantly from 45.7% in NFHS-5 to 62.2% in NFHS-6. The figure was considerably higher in urban areas at 79.2%, compared to 56.3% in rural areas.
Births delivered through caesarean section also increased from 5.2% in the previous survey to 9.9%.
The survey showed improvements in antenatal care as well. A total of 61.8% of mothers received their first antenatal check-up during the first trimester of pregnancy, up from 49.5% in NFHS-5.
Overall, 83.2% of mothers received antenatal care during pregnancy, while 32.5% had at least four antenatal care visits.
The proportion of mothers who consumed iron-folic acid tablets for 100 days or more during pregnancy more than doubled, increasing from 10.2% in the previous survey to 24.8%.
However, not all indicators registered improvement. The percentage of mothers whose last birth was protected against neonatal tetanus declined from 81.3% in NFHS-5 to 78.0% in NFHS-6.