Since husbands & wives differ in fertility desire and intention to use contraception whichrnimplies spouses individually & as couple have different level of need regarding contraception.rnTo estimates unmet need level for contraception of couples data from both spouses arernrequired; so community based cross sectional study was conducted between Jan 3-Jan 17,rn2005 in six kebeles of Harar city, eastern Ethiopia. After 19 Kebeles of the city was stratifiedrnin to three strata based on socio-economic factors, two Kebeles from each of the three stratarnwas selected by simple random sampling. 1/6th of sample size was selected from each of the 6rnkebeles by systematic sampling. The study units were married couples with wives age rangesrn15-49 year. Four hundred sixty couples were interviewed using pre tested questionnaires.rnData were collected from both spouses regarding fertility desire & its timing; wanted-ness andrntiming of pregnant/lactating women at the time were used to determine level of un-met needrnamong husbands, wives & couples and also to assess factors associated with un-met need. Arnminimum estimate of unmet need for contraception of couples not practicing contraceptives isrnproduced when both partners have unmet need & a maximum estimate of unmet need forrncontraception of couples not practicing contraceptives occurs if either spouse having unmetrnneed defines unmet need. Husbands are found to have more children and sooner than wivesrnand wives have more desire to limit and intend to use contraceptives than husbands. Unmetrnneed estimate level for wivesâ€™, husbandsâ€™ and coplesâ€™ (minimum) were found to be 15.3%,rn16.5% and 4.7% respectively. All figures are (below expectation) very low in comparison tornother study results. For example when compared with 36% unmet level for married women byrnthe DHS Ethiopia survey with the one obtained from this study it is very low (15.3%). This isrnprobably due to the constellation of the following factors. The presence of two hospitals,rnFGAE clinic & other facility in the city of harar, 86% of all couples in the study have alivernvirnchildren & out of them 58% have at least two children; more than 78% of couples reportedrnusage of a method in the past, only 19% of wives and 10% of husbands are illiterates, meanrntime to reach the service point was is only 30 minutes, more than 82% of couples approverncontraceptive use, 60% of couples have discussed contraceptive issue in the last six months,rnmore than 90% of couples heard and knew about contraceptives, 67% of couples have bothrnT.V and radio; resulting in higher contraceptive prevalence which is 69% for wives and 66%rnfor husbands. Amongst the factors considered to be associated with unmet need like age,rneducation, number of alive children, knowledge & attitude towards contraceptives and so on;rnonly perceived approval of contraceptives use by spouses and discussion about contraceptivesrnbetween spouses are found to be associated significantly (p=.00) (table8 ,9). This warrantsrnpromotion and promotion activity to enhance communication between spouses. Incorporatingrnreproductive health need of male in the over all reproductive health planning and servicerndelivery and to make them male friendly is very important.(3) Endeavour to enhancernprevalence of permanent contraceptive methods including vasectomy, which is very low at thernmoment, for limiters. Studies on family planning should include both women and men tornenhance successful family planning service delivery that targets couples.