ABSTRACT

This chapter examines regional variations and the effects of region variables on women's reproductive health, this chapter contains four sections. The first section discusses the variations of women's reproductive health indicators across and within regions. Section two focuses on cluster analysis which is used to group countries with similar values on women's reproductive health scores. Section three provides discussions on the tests of the statistical significance in regional variations. Section four discusses the dilemma of the sub-Saharan Africa region with regard to women's reproductive health conditions. Sub-Saharan Africa remains the highest infant mortality rate in the world. The highest maternal and infant mortality rates are found in the sub-Saharan Africa region, while the South Asia region leads in the percentage of infants with low birth weight. Cluster analysis is a method for grouping items to assess similarities based on the occurrence or non-occurrence of particular characteristics.