Background: Worldwidemillions of sexually active women want to avoid pregnancy but not using contraception, these women are defined to have unmet need for contraception. This concept of unmet need points the gap between women’s reproductive intention and their contraceptive behaviour.So this study intended to find out magnitude and determinants of unmet need for contraception among married women of age group of 15–49 years in rural area.

Methods: Community based cross sectional study was carried out among 225 currently married women of reproductive age group using simple random sampling. Data was collected using pretested, predesigned questionnaire.

Results: Total unmet need for contraception was 14.2% with spacing 10.2% and limiting 4.0%. In bivariate analysis, females having only female child in the family, female without autonomy and female having no discussion with husband regarding contraception had higher odds of unmet need for contraception.  In multivariate analysis, adjusting for all the variables, no Knowledge of contraceptive methods, no child in the family, no discussion with husband regarding contraception were significant predictors of unmet need for contraception.

Conclusions– Male involvement in family planning is necessary to increase the discussion between husband and wife. Autonomy of women should be address in the form of their involvement in household decision making process; in health related decision and making them enable to spend on their own decision.