High and stalled levels of fertility are major concerns not only in sub-Saharan
Africa but also in many other developing countries in the world. Studies abound
on fertility of men and women and consequently, policies have been put in place
to address fertility with no significant change. This has necessitated new
approach to affect fertility behaviour. Therefore, the study examines couples’
characteristics and fertility preference in Nigeria. The analysis utilized the 2008
couples recode dataset. Data analyses were done using Kappa Statistics and
multinomial logistic regression. The results showed that age, work status, wealth
status, fertility desire, spousal communication/decision making and contraceptive
use were characteristics of couples significantly predicting fertility behaviour
(P<0.05) while work status, wealth status, contraceptive knowledge and use were
significant characteristics predicting fertility behaviour of either of the couples
(P<0.05). The analysis concluded that understanding characteristics of couples
is important in fertility behaviour and control in Nigeria.