Notes
The ideal number of children that the respondent would have liked to have in her whole life, irrespective of the number she already has. In many countries it was possible for a respondent to reply to this question with a range of values, in which case this variable contains the midpoint between these values. If the midpoint is not an exact number then the number is rounded up in half the cases and rounded down for the other half. In situations where a range of values was collected, the original variables are included as country-specific var iables. In some countries, additional country-specific categories are included, such as "It depends on God" or " As many as I can support" and are given country-specific codes.