Background: Nearly two million people are added to the population ofrnEthiopia each year. It is the second most populous country in Africa (next tornNigeria) and usually quoted as one of the demographic giants on the Africanrncontinent. It has now become clear that uncontrolled fertility has adverselyrninfluenced the socio-economic, demographic and environmental situations ofrnEthiopia. Rapid population growth has hampered its development making therneradication of extreme poverty and hunger difficult. The country has experiencedrnmany man made and natural disasters. This undesirable situation is furtherrnaggravated by rapid population growth. In spite of the rapid population growth inrnEthiopia in General and in the Amhara region (especially in the two GondarrnZones) in particular the contraceptive prevalence rates are reported to be low.rnObjectives: A number of distinct objectives that addressed several issuesrnwhich ultimately led to the examination of fertility and the use of family planningrnmethods were employed. Efforts were made to estimate the fertility rates andrnquantify the contribution of each of the proximate determinants of fertility thatrnbring fertility below its biological maximum in North and South Gondar Zones ofrnNorthwest Ethiopia. It was also aimed at identifying the factors influencing fertilityrnand investigating the perception of the study subjects towards rapid populationrngrowth. Moreover, efforts were made to closely explore the current practices andrnfuture intentions of the study subjects towards contraception.rnMethods: The study had two components. The first one was a quantitativernstudy which involved 3512 women aged 15 to 49 years. The second componentrnwas a qualitative study which consisted of five focus group discussions and tenrnkey informant interviews