4. How old are you?
Completed years ____
Month from last birthday to Census Day ____
5. What is your date of birth?
Day ____
Month ____
Year ____
6. What is your Chinese date of birth?
Day ____
Month ____
Year ____
Question 5
Information on date of birth for each person in the household may be obtained from documents such as identity card, birth certificate, etc. or even directly from the respondent. In some cases particularly for older persons, the respondent may know his age but not the year of birth In this case, calculate the date (year of birth) from the age given. Record the information on day, month and year on the lines provided.
[p. 68]
Sometimes the respondent disputes the date of birth given in the documents and he gives a different date which he believes to be true. In such cases, enter the date of birth given by him. (However, the age of the person must be reconciled with the birth date if the age was derived from the date in the document). If the person has no documents and does not know his date of birth, you will not be able to record the answer fully. Once you have obtained the date of birth, shade the relevant code boxes provided.
There are 3 steps to marking the date of birth:
1. Firstly, if the day is given, check to see if it is before 11th or 11th and after. If it is before 11th then mark the box labeled, 'Before 11th ' and if it is the latter case, mark the box '11th/After 11th'.
2. Secondly, mark in the month in the appropriate box numbered from 1 to 12. Thus, if a person was born in April, mark the '04' box, as -this is the fourth month of the year.
3. Thirdly, mark the year of birth. You will only mark the last 2 digits of the year, e.g. '49' instead of '1949: Even for cases where persons are born in the last century (i.e. 1800s) you should ignore the first two digits and only consider the last two digits. For example, if a respondent was born in 1895, the boxes 9 and 5 should be marked. Note that there are two rows of code boxes, one for the first digit, and the other for the second digit.
Question 6
If the person is a Chinese and Question 5 has not been obtained in full, the additional information has to be obtained based on the Chinese calendar. Try to obtain as much detail as possible. Twelve animals in the twelve-year cycle and their equivalents in Chinese characters will be found in the Code Card (Forms 14(a)/14(b)/ 14(c)). Write the answer in the space provided.