E - Fertility characteristics
(For all women ages 15 and older)
[Questions 20 to 23 were asked of women age 15+ years old]

23. Is your last child alive?

E. Fertility characteristics (for all females aged 15 and older)

The purpose of question 20-23 is to obtain information allowing research on fertility and relevant characteristics related to population growth. They are also designed to obtain information about the level of and past trends in mortality rates in the population of Guatemala.

To investigate such important questions requires you to be sensitive and extremely clever during the interview.

Ask question 20-23 of all females aged 15 years or older, regardless of their civil status.

[p. 82]

If possible, ask these questions of the girls and women directly. They may sometimes forget to declare live-born children who died, and those who are still alive. Keep this in mind to avoid any omissions.

Important: It has been noted that some enumerators assume that unmarried women do not have children and thus they do not ask them the pertinent questions. This approach is incorrect and results in poor-quality data that cannot be used to study population growth.

Question 23: is your last live-born child living?

1. How to ask the question:
Ask, "Is your last live-born child living?"

2. How to record the answer:
If the last live-born child is living, mark an "X" in box 1, "yes." If the last live-born child has died, mark an "X" in box 2, "no."

If the respondent does not know if the last live-born child has died, mark an "X" in box 9, "unknown."

3. Example:
[This box contains question 23 of the section VI "people in the census household."]