Data from 26 countries that participated in the first phase of the Demographic and Health Surveys show that the percentage of couples who rely on sterilization and the proportion of total contraceptive use accounted for by sterilization are rising in Asia, Latin America and a few countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. As of the mid-1980s, more than 25% of married women of childbearing age were relying on sterilization (either female or male) in Brazil, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Sri Lanka and Thailand. While sterilization rates are still modest in most of Sub-Saharan Africa, two countries - Botswana and Kenya - have a sterilization prevalence rate of 5%. Approximately, one-half the demand for contraception to limit family size has been satisfied by female sterilization in the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Sri Lanka and Thailand. In Bolivia, Botswana, Egypt, Indonesia, Kenya, Morocco, Peru, and Trinidad and Tobago, where sterilization programs are new or not a major component of family planning services, one-quarter or less of the demand for contraception has been met by sterilization. Among women who said they would prefer sterilization as their future method, 80% or more in 13 of the 16 countries for which data are available could name a source of sterilization. In 11 of 17 countries, one-third or more of the women who said they would consider sterilization had never used a modern method of contraception. In 10 of the 17 countries, more than 50% of women considering sterilization live in rural areas, and in all 17, the majority of women considering sterilization have only a primary school education.