Age is the time length (day, month, or year) since birth up to the census date. In this column the correct age of each household member at the time of the population and housing census is filled in full years. Age in full years means age measures beyond year such as months, weeks, days re truncated and only the years are taken and registered. For example if a person's age is 15 years 5 months and 11 days, the age to register will be only 15 years and must not be 15 years 5 months and 11 days. If a child's age is below one year "00" will be entered in column 19 card columns 35-36. If on the other hand a person's age is 98 years and over, only "98" is entered in card column 35-36.

It is expected that there are people who do not know their correct ages or do not want to report their ages. Therefore it is required to make an effort as much as possible without giving up obtaining the correct age. In order to resolve these problems it is appropriate to focus on the following method which is one among others.

It is important to attempt to estimate the respondent's age with reference to historical event that took place at national level or in the neighborhood of the respondent's birth place and based on the response to questions by asking the respondent how old he/she was when the event took place or how long was his/her birth date after the event .For example if the person was born ten years before the eruption of the Ethiopian revolution, then his/her age in 1984 is more or less /1984 - 974/ + 10 = 20 years, and this will be entered. A person's age can be estimated by relating his/her birth year with historical events. For this purpose list of major historical events by year is provided for reference in appendix 1 of this manual.

Some of the household members or people livening in the neighborhood may not know their ages. This time their ages can be estimated in contrast with those who know their ages.
If the age of one of the household member is known correctly, it may be possible to estimate ages of the other members. For example if the age of the first child in the household is known to be 13, it is possible to estimate the mother's age as 29. This is because most of the time mothers are assumed to have their first child at the age of 16 and hence her age would be 13 + 16 = 29. A person's age within a group of people having blood relationship can be estimated by making comparison among them. For example, most of the time mothers give birth every two years. If one of her child is known to be 7 years old then his/her elder one can be 9. Sometimes old people report their age much higher. Their age can be estimated in comparison with the ages of their older children and grandchildren. Hence if one of the household member's age is known then age of other members has to be estimated in relation to the others.

Furthermore if a member's age is known when he got married, his current age can be estimated by considering the number of years he stayed in marriage and also in relation with his children's age.

There are people who prefer or get it easy to report their ages in numbers ending with zero or five. However they don't have to report in figures easy for them or in figures they want but need to try to get their exact ages. In fact ages of certain people can be 10, 15, 20, 25, etc.

Parents can remember birth dates of their children under the age of 10 and the children's age have to be recorded correctly in full years. When determining the child's age becomes difficult a lot of effort has to be made to arrive at the correct ages.

The correct age of each of the household members is entered in column 19 card columns 35-36 after determining their ages on the basis of the above discussion and by making the necessary effort, posing questions towards getting the right age and by making the necessary computation.