Quality or Quantity: Family Size and Gender Preferences among Households in Rural and Urban Areas of Zamfara State, North West Nigeria

The research study was on family size and gender preferences in rural and urban areas of Zamfara state, Nigeria. The research objectives are to establish spatial differences of households’ family size, between rural and urban setting in Zamfara State, determine the desired family size and preference in the study area, identify and examine determinants of households’ desired family size and gender preferences in the study area.. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were employed in the study. 560 questionnaires were used on households’ respondents who were selected using proportionate sampling from households’ size of Zamfara State. In-depth interview was administered to 286 respondents using purposive sampling and obtained qualitative data on households’ family size, number of children and gender preferences among women of child bearing ages of 15- 49 years. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used for analyses of the data. The results revealed that there was significant difference on family size in rural and urban areas of Zamfara State. It was found that Levine’s test is significant at (p>0.05) (sig. 2-tailed is 0.017). Finally, majority of the respondents preferred male children than females. While people in rural areas believed in no ideal size, majority of urban dwellers preferred small family size due to high cost of upbringing. The study concludes that gender preferences affect family size significantly. However, enlightment campaign is recommended to discourage high gender preferences so that people understand the role of sexes in complementing one another