[Questions C1-27 were asked of persons who live in their households on Census Days.]

C6. How old are you? _ _

Question C5
Purpose

The purpose of this question is to get complete information on the date of birth for each individual.

How to ask the question
Ask this question as follows:
"What is the date of birth of ____ (name of member)?"

As far as possible you must get complete information on date of birth that is day, month and year.

How to record the answer
Write the information given on day, month, year in the relevant boxes provided.
[An example has been omitted]

[p.112]

Nevertheless, you may come across cases where respondent cannot give complete information on date of birth as in the following examples:
Example 1: If the respondent informs that he/she was born on Jun 1931 but do not know the day, write the answer as follows:
_ _ Date 06 Month 1931 Year

Example 2: If the respondent informs that he/she was born in 1925 but do not know day and month, write the answer as follows:
_ _ Date _ _ Month 1925 Year

Example 3: If the respondent does not know his/her date of birth at all (day, month and year), leave all the boxes blank. Then ask Question C6 to get the estimated age on Census Day (in completed years).
_ _ Date _ _ Month _ _ _ _ Year

[p.113]
Special Note: Information on date of birth is very important in census data collection. As far as possible, you must get complete and accurate information on date of birth.

Question C6
[Question C6 of the enumeration form is not presented here.]

Purpose

The purpose of this question is to get the estimated age in complete years for cases where the respondent cannot remember his/her date of birth.

How to ask the question
Ask this question as follows:
"How old is ____ (member's name) on 14 August 1991?'

Information required is age in completed years at last birthday on Census Day.

How to record the answer
Write information on age in 2-digit in the boxes provided.
If age is less than one year, (e.g., 3 months old) write age as "00".
If age is 99 years or more, write "99".

[p.114]

Special Cases:
For older and less educated persons, problems may arise for this question. If the information on age cannot be obtained with a direct question, it may still be obtained by probing, for example, by promoting the individual to recall important events such as, how many years he/she has been married, how many years he/she has lived in the kampung and so forth.

As a guide to estimate age, several important events in the history of Malaysia are given below:
Year

You can also use local events which can assist you to estimate age such as occurrences of a serious food, fire, etc.

As a last resort, you can guess his/her age by comparing the physical appearance of the respondent with the appearance of his/her relatives whose ages are known.

Special note:
In any situation, you cannot leave both Question C5 and C6 blank. If information on the date of birth cannot be obtained, ensure that age in completed years is obtained in all cases.