The 2015-16 National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4), the fourth in the NFHS series, provides information on population, health, and nutrition for India and each state and union territory. For the first time, NFHS-4 provides district-level estimates for many important indicators. All four NFHS surveys have been conducted under the stewardship of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Government of India. MoHFW designated the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai, as the nodal agency for the surveys. Funding for NFHS-4 was provided by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), UNICEF, UNFPA, the MacArthur Foundation, and the Government of India. Technical assistance for NFHS-4 was provided by ICF, Maryland, USA. Assistance for the HIV component of the survey was provided by the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) and the National AIDS Research Institute (NARI), Pune.

Abstract

The 2015-16 National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4), the fourth in the NFHS series, provides information on population, health, and nutrition for India and each state and union territory. For the first time, NFHS-4 provides district-level estimates for many important indicators. All four NFHS surveys have been conducted under the stewardship of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Government of India. MoHFW designated the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai, as the nodal agency for the surveys. Funding for NFHS-4 was provided by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), UNICEF, UNFPA, the MacArthur Foundation, and the Government of India. Technical assistance for NFHS-4 was provided by ICF, Maryland, USA. Assistance for the HIV component of the survey was provided by the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) and the National AIDS Research Institute (NARI), Pune.

Geographic coverage

National coverage

Analysis unit

• Household
• Individual
• Children age 0-5
• Woman age 15-49
• Man age 15-54

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

The NFHS-4 sample was designed to provide estimates of all key indicators at the national and state levels, as well as estimates for most key indicators at the district level (for all 640 districts in India, as of the 2011 Census). The total sample size of approximately 572,000 households for India was based on the size needed to produce reliable indicator estimates for each district and for urban and rural areas in districts in which the urban population accounted for 30-70 percent of the total district population. The rural sample was selected through a two-stage sample design with villages as the Primary Sampling Units (PSUs) at the first stage (selected with probability proportional to size), followed by a random selection of 22 households in each PSU at the second stage. In urban areas, there was also a two-stage sample design with Census Enumeration Blocks (CEB) selected at the first stage and a random selection of 22 households in each CEB at the second stage. At the second stage in both urban and rural areas, households were selected after conducting a complete mapping and household listing operation in the selected first-stage units.

The figures of NFHS-4 and that of earlier rounds may not be strictly comparable due to differences in sample size and NFHS-4 will be a benchmark for future surveys. NFHS-4 fieldwork for Bihar was conducted in all 38 districts of the state from 16 March to 8 August 2015 by the Academic Management Studies (AMS) and collected information from 36,772 households, 45,812 women age 15-49 (including 7,464 women interviewed in PSUs in the state module), and 5,872 men age 15-54.

Mode of data collection

Computer Assisted Personal Interview [capi]

Research instrument

Four questionnaires - household, woman's, man's, and biomarker, were used to collect information in 19 languages using Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI).