5. What is [the respondent's] age as of his/her last birthday? (If age is 95 years or more, write "95")

Question 4: In what solar calendar month and year was [the respondent] born?
Month and year of birth are recorded in the solar calendar; they are the actual month and year of birth in the solar calendar and are not following any kind of document (identification card, population registration book, etc.).

If the respondent knows the month and year of birth in the solar calendar, then the enumerator records that month and year on the printed boxes. If he/she only remembers the month and year of birth in the lunar calendar, then the enumerator must use the "Conversion between lunar and solar calendar years" (Appendix 7) to convert the lunar calendar month and year to the solar calendar month and year.

Note: The solar calendar year often comes more than 1 month before the lunar calendar year; when converting month of birth in the lunar calendar to the solar calendar, the enumerator should add 1 to the month of birth in the lunar calendar. Thus, persons born from month 1 (thang gieng) to month 11 (thang mot) in the lunar calendar month will become the months of February to December of the same year. If they were born in month 12 (thang chap) in the lunar calendar, their month of birth in the solar calendar will be January of the next year.

If the respondent does not remember the month of birth, the enumerator must use a prompt: In what season was [the respondent] born? Born before or after the lunar calendar Tet, mid-lunar calendar month 7, mid-month 8, born before or after the date of the victory of Dien Bien Phu battle (7 May in the solar calendar), liberation of the South (30 April in the solar calendar), National Day 2 September, Uncle Ho's birthday (19 May in solar calendar), etc. to help the respondent remember the month of birth.

As the Census day is 1 April, those who have the same year of birth and month of birth from January to March will have the same way of calculating completed age, and those who have the same year of birth and month of birth from April to December will have the same way of calculating completed age. Therefore, in case the prompt was used but not successful, try to ask whether the respondent was born in the first three months or in the last nine months of the solar calendar year to select randomly one of the first three months, or of the last nine months to put into the corresponding two boxes.

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If after taking such an effort, the respondent is still unable to remember the month of birth, enumerator will put "98" into the corresponding two boxes and continue to ask about the year of birth.

If the respondent remembers the birth year in the lunar calendar, the enumerator will record that year into four printed boxes. For example, if the birth year is 1954, record "1954" into four boxes, 1 digit per 1 box.

If the respondent does not remember the birth year in the solar calendar, but remembers the birth year in the lunar calendar (for example Binh Ty, At Suu, etc., or even only remembering the animal age: Tiger, Cat, etc.), use the "Conversion between lunar calendar and solar calendar years" (Appendix 7) to choose a corresponding solar calendar year to fill in the corresponding four boxes, then move to ask Question 6, not Question 5.

Note, in using the "Conversion between lunar calendar and solar calendar years" to choose a solar calendar year for the respondent, there would be a difference of 12 years (if the respondent can only remember the age in the animal year: "chi") or 60 years (if the respondent can remember both "can" and "chi"), so it is necessary to ask an additional question "By this year, how old was [the respondent]?" in combination with looking at the face of the respondent to determine the true age to avoid confusion.

In case the respondent is unable to remember the year of birth, the enumerator marks (x) in the small box next to the code number "9999", then asks about Question 5 and leaves the boxes used to record the year of birth in the solar calendar blank.

Question 5: What was [the respondent]'s age at his/her last birthday?
This question is only asked and recorded for those who did not remember their birth year. (In Question 5 marked (x) in the small box next to the code number "9999").

This aims to collect information on the respondent's age in the solar calendar. Thus, when the respondent gives his/her age, the enumerator must ask an additional question "Is that your age in the lunar or solar calendar?" If the answer is "in the lunar calendar", then before filling the age in the two printed boxes, the enumerator must subtract 1 from that age to get age in the solar calendar (because age in the lunar calendar is generally 1 year older than that in the solar calendar).

If the respondent's age in the solar calendar is greater than 95 years old, then the enumerator records "95" in the two printed boxes.

For those whose age in the calendar year is less than 1, the enumerator must fill "0" in the left box.

When the respondent is unable to remember his/her age, the enumerator can refer to related documents or discuss with other household members to obtain the age, or take prompts to make an estimate of age. The prompt can be done by comparing the age of the respondent with the age of any household member or the age of someone nearby knowing the exact age of that person.

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If the prompt is not successful, the enumerator must estimate the respondent's age by looking at his/her body: that is, to look at the outward body in combination with considering his/her children's age, his/her wife/husband's age, etc., to guess an approximation age for the respondent. It is noted that this is an unwilling way, and is only used when no prompt is successful. It is not allowed to put the code of "not stated" for the question of "age in calendar year".

Note: When interviewing and recording Questions 4 and 5, the enumerator must pay attention to find old persons age 100 or older (when Question 4 was recorded as March 1903 or before, or when asking Question 5, the respondent answered an age of 100 or more). If true, the enumerator must fill out the "Notification of persons with age of 100 years old or more" (use Appendix 6 to fill) to submit it to his/her supervisor.