Questionnaire Text

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For all members of the household (1 through 18)
[Question 1 through 18 were asked of all persons living in the household.]

5. Completed age_ _

If age greater than or equal to 98, write "98". If less than one write "00".

Questionnaire instructions view entire document: text image

Part 2: For all Members of the Household

Question 5: Age in completed years

116. Ask "what is the age of [the respondent] in completed years?". Write the age in completed years (two digits) in the boxes provided. Age in completed years means the person's age at his/hers last birthday. Always start by asking the person's age and follow up with the question on the date of birth as a consistency check on the former. For babies under one year of age, write 00. Use two digits in recording age, e.g. "01","02", etc. Persons aged 98 years and over should be coded "98". Make sure always that your writing is legible and write only within the boxes.

117. Be careful not to round ages up to the next birthday. In Myanmar, it is common to report the coming age rather than completed age. A child who is aged four years and 11 months should for example be entered as "04" and not "05". When recording age you must confirm carefully that it is completed age.

118. It is also possible that some respondents will give you the year when they were born based on the Myanmar year. You must verify if the year given is in normal English year or Myanmar year. A conversion table has been prepared so that if any respondent gives the age in Myanmar year so that you can check the corresponding age in English and record accordingly. Age in the census must be filled in English year.

119. The column on age must not be left blank. Some people may not know their ages. If a person's age is not known, you must make the best estimate possible. There are various ways in which you can estimate a person's age. Sometimes, people have documents such as religious certificates, birth registration certificates, identity card which shows the year of the birth, "Household Registration List" with date of birth of each member (in case you were given the Household Listing") in which case it is easy to calculate age. Use such information to get correct information on age.

[p. 26]

120. Generally, it is not so easy to estimate age for members of the household if none of them know their age. When you come across a household where all members do not know their ages. In such cases concentrate first on establishing the age of one or two persons in the household. One reliable age may help in working out the ages of others whether they are older or younger and by how many years.

121. It is sometimes possible to estimate a person's age by relating his/her birth to some notable historical event. With these instructions is a Calendar of Events, which lists the dates of major events in the history of Myanmar. If the person can remember how old he/she was at the time at the event, you can work out the person's age.

122. This is how to use the calendar of events to estimate the respondent's age.

a) Ask for any historical event, which occurred around the time of the birth/childhood of the respondent.
b) Ask how old the respondent was when that event occurred or how many years elapsed before his/her birth.
c) Then use this information to work out his/her age. For example, if respondent was about 3 years when the U Thant Conflict happened in Myanmar. First, check which year U Thant conflict happened and, it is in 1973 according to English year and 1334 in Myanmar year. When we check the current age of a person born in 1973 from the table, it is 40 years. So this person should be 3 + 43 = 46 years at the time of the census in 2014. You can use the same approach to establish the age of a person in the household. If this method fails, you should try the following approach.

123. Simply estimate how old he/she may be.

a) Then select from the list of historical events, some events which occurred about the time when according to your estimate he/she must have been born.
b) Ask whether he/she has heard about any of those events.
c) If he/she has, ask him/her to give you an indication of how old he/she was when this event occurred or how many years elapsed before he/she was born.
d) Then, from this information work out his/her age.

124. If this still fails, then base your estimate on biological relationships. For instance, a woman who does not know her age but who has two or three children of her own is unlikely to be less than 15 years old, however, small she may look. You may then try to work out her age by the following methods.

a) Determine the age of her eldest child.
b) Ask her to give an estimate of her age at the birth of this child. However, without further probing, you should not base your assumption on the eldest child who is presently living. There is the likelihood that in certain cases, the first child died or that the woman had miscarriages or stillbirths. Therefore, if the woman tells you that she had one miscarriage or stillbirth before the oldest living child was born, you should make your estimation from the year of the first miscarriage/stillbirth or livebirth.

125. When you have arrived at the best estimate you can make of a person's age, check that it is compatible with his or her relationship to others in the household. Obviously, children cannot be older than their parents, women seldom marry before they are 15 years old and men before they are 18 years old, and so on.

[p. 27-29 contain a figure titled "Table 2: Historical Calendar of Events in Myanmar/Current". The figure has been omitted.]

126. For a person who remembers the year of birth or through checking the "Household Registration List" if voluntarily given and upon getting the date of birth; you can, use the Age Conversion Table (Figure 3) to get his/her age at the time of the census. For example, if a person was born in 1960. According to this table, he/she will be 53 years old.

Any estimate of age, however rough, is better than a response of "don't know". Do the best you can to report ages accurately.