India’s 1992–93 National Family Health Survey (NFHS) collected detailed information on contraceptive use among currently married women between the ages of 13 and 49. The survey showed that knowledge of contraception is almost universal among these Indian women, but only 41 percent are actually using contraception. The mean number of children at first use of contraception is 2.8. Three-quarters of couples who use contraception rely on sterilization, mainly female sterilization. Among these couples, the median age of the wife when she or her husband was sterilized is 26.6 years. Seventy-nine percent of current users of modern contraceptive methods obtain contraception from government sources. Although only 6 percent of women currently using contraception are using modern temporary methods, nearly one-third of women who are not currently using contraception but intend to do so in the future expressed a preference for such methods. This report focuses primarily on the determinants of contraceptive use. The effects of various predictor variables are analyzed first without and then with statistical controls for women’s level of education and rural or urban residence. The analysis results in several major findings. Contraceptive use is higher in urban than in rural areas in part because urban women are more educated than rural women. Son preference has a strong effect on contraceptive use up to the point at which women have two living sons, but not beyond. Religion has a substantial effect on contraceptive use, even after residence and education are controlled: in almost all states, Muslims have lower use rates than Hindus. Although there is considerable variability among states in the effect of caste and tribe on contraceptive use, there is a strong tendency for women from scheduled castes or scheduled tribes to have lower contraceptive use rates than other women. Exposure to the electronic mass media (radio, television, and cinema) has a large, positive effect on contraceptive use. This effect persists after residence and education are controlled. Utilization of health services for antenatal care or delivery tends to have a positive effect on contraceptive use, even after residence and education are controlled, but this effect varies considerably by state