Table 1.

Percentage distribution of child- and mother-level characteristics by region of residence, Nigerian DHS 2008

Variable/category	Nigeria % (n)	North-Central % (n)	North-East % (n)	North-West % (n)	South-East % (n)	South-West % (n)	South-South % (n)	p-value
Region of residence	100	17.6	22.9	27.7	8.6	11.6	11.7
	(28,647)	(5046)	(6559)	(7947)	(2450)	(3318)	(3327)
Child's sex								0.950
Male	50.9	51.3	50.3	50.6	51.2	51.0	51.1
Female	49.1	48.7	49.7	49.4	48.8	49.0	48.9
Birth order								<0.001
First birth	18.7	19.0	15.5	16.2	22.1	24.4	22.1
2–4	45.6	47.6	41.3	41.8	47.9	55.8	48.3
5+	35.7	33.4	43.2	42.0	30.0	19.8	29.5
Birth interval
<24 months	19.2	15.9	21.2	20.6	26.8	12.3	19.6
24+ months	80.8	84.1	78.8	79.4	73.2	87.7	80.4
Maternal education								<0.001
None	46.5	44.5	73.7	78.4	7.2	14.9	6.7
Primary	23.2	29.4	16.6	13.3	31.2	28.9	35.7
Secondary or higher	30.3	26.1	9.6	8.4	61.6	56.2	57.6
Maternal age								<0.001
15–24	24.8	26.1	29.9	30.1	16.5	16.3	20.9
25–34	49.8	49.6	45.8	44.4	55.2	57.0	55.2
35+	25.4	24.4	24.3	25.4	28.3	26.7	23.9
Religion								<0.001
Christianity	43.1	55.3	15.3	4.9	95.7	60.8	95.3
Islam	55.4	42.9	83.6	93.9	0.3	38.4	2.7
Other	1.6	1.8	1.1	1.1	4.0	0.8	1.9
Wealth index								<0.001
Poorest	23.2	23.6	47.0	32.3	5.4	4.9	7.2
Poorer	22.8	24.9	24.5	33.2	10.8	11.3	16.5
Middle	19.3	25.1	16.3	17.8	25.5	13.5	22.8
Richer	17.8	15.0	9.4	10.9	31.4	25.3	28.2
Richest	16.9	11.4	2.7	5.8	26.9	45.0	25.3
Place of delivery								<0.001
Home	63.9	58.3	87.1	91.4	22.2	24.3	50.2
Health facility	36.1	41.7	12.9	8.6	77.8	75.7	49.8