For all persons
[Questions in columns 1 to 11 were asked of all persons]
Now we would like to ask for information on you and the persons habitually living in your household or currently residing in your home
(6) Age _ _
What is the age of [the respondent]? Write in the age in years fully lived years.
[] 0 0 is age is less than a year
[] 9 8 if age is equal to or higher than 98
i) Socio-demographic characteristics
Column (6): Age
This is one of the most important questions of the interview because almost all data analyses are based on age. You must obtain the age in years elapsed, i.e. the age on the last birthday. You must report the age for each person and according to four different methods depending on the type of available information:
a) The person knows his/her age. Simply write it down in the grids.
Example: -For children younger than 1 year of age (less than 12 months), write down in the grids |0|0|. For 25 and a half years, write down |2|5|
b) The person does not know his/her age, but the date of birth is reported in column (5). You could calculate his/her age by referring to the coherence table or if he/she celebrated his/her birthday this year, subtract the year of birth from the current year. If the person has not yet celebrated his/her birthday, subtract the year of birth from the previous year. If he/she does not remember when he/she celebrates his/her birthday, subtract the year of birth from the current year (refer to the coherence table on the next page).
c) He/she does not know his/her age and the birth year is not reported in column (5). You must try to estimate his/her age. Delving deeper into the question of age can be time consuming and is tedious; however, it is important that you take the time to try to obtain the best information possible. There are several ways to determine age:
i) You must approximate his/her age relative to the age of someone else in the household or in a nearby household whose age is known in a more reliable way;
ii) Try to determine the age he/she had during an important event (war, flooding, regime change, etc.) and add his/her age to the number of years elapsed since the event.
d) He/she does not know his/her age and insisting is not helping. You must then estimate his/her age. This estimation must only be made as a last resort, when all your efforts to obtain the information have failed.
Remember that you must absolutely give an answer in column (6).
Notes: the census agent must keep in mind that:
The age of a father must be at least 15 years higher than his first child.
The age of a mother must be at least 12 years higher than her first child.
For persons, whose age is higher or equal to 98 years, write down 98.
[Age coherence table omitted. This is table that indicates age based on birth year and whether a person has celebrated his/her birthday in 2002 or not]
[Example table omitted]
[This page contains a table with filled out lines provided as an example for the census agent]