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ML1987A_AGEUNIT
Age unit
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Questionnaire Text

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7. Age
_ _ _
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7. Age

Specify the age both for individuals who know their date of birth as well as for those who have no official documents indicating the month and year of their birth. Ask the age of the individual and write it in column 7.

Calculate the age in completed years for persons aged more than one year and in completed months for children of less than one year (12 months). Thus:
- An individual who is 30 years and 8 months will be recorded as having 30 years
- An individual born in 1950 is: 1987 - 1950 years, or 37 years old
- A baby of 4 months and 28 days will be recorded as having 04 months
- A baby of 15 days will be recorded as having 15 days.


Be especially attentive when you are getting the age of children younger than one year.

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The age of these children must be specified in completed months. If possible use the seasonal calendar in the annex.

NB: The age of a person in completed years is obtained by:

a. Subtracting the person's year of birth from 1987 if he has already celebrated his birthday in 1987;

b. Subtracting the person's year of birth from 1986 if he has not yet celebrated his birthday at the time of the interview.


Practical example: Mamadou DIARRA, born on June 10 1932, is 54 years old. His wife Mariam TRAORE is 37 and his baby, Oumar DIARRA is 6 months old, though his exact date of birth is not known. Write their ages on the questionnaire as follows:

MAMADOU DIARRA
Date of birth (6) or age (7): 06/32 [_] and 54 y [_ _ _]

MIRIAM TRAORE
Date of birth (6) or age (7): [_] and 37 y [_ _ _]

OUMAR DIARRA
Date of birth (6) or age (7): [_] and 6 months [_ _ _]

NOTE: Giving the date of birth does not exclude mentioning the age.

People who don't know their age:

During the census count you may meet people who do not know their age. In these cases help those people determine their age using one of the following two methods:

Method 1 - Historical Calendar
A historical calendar is a list of memorable national [or local events, with their dates, which have a special influence on national life in general]

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or the life of local communities in particular. Using this calendar to determine a person's age consists of giving an estimated age at the time of one of these events, and the date of birth can then be determined by subtracting the date of the census to obtain the true age.

To use the historical calendar follow these steps:

First estimate the age of the individual from his/her appearance. Let's assume [the person looks] 30 years old. To find the starting point in the calendar, add 5 years to this age: 30 + 5=35 years.

Now subtract that number from the date of the census: 1986 - 30 = 1956.

Then look in the calendar for an event that takes place around 1956, and say out loud to the person, "Do you remember this event?"

- If the answer is yes then ask what age he thinks he may have been at that time. Let's assume he is able to say with certainty that he was 10. Then this individual was [born] in 1956-10, or 1946, and his age is then equal to 1986-1946 or 40 years.

- If the answer is no then go to the next event.

Method 2 - Chronological ranking
Some members of the household may remember that they are older or younger than other members of their household or people around them even if they don't know their own age. If you can determine precisely the age of one or 2 of these people, you can estimate the age of an individual who does not know his age.