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A study of age reporting in selected Arab censuses of population

Symbol: 
E/ESCWA/SD/2013/5
Issued in: 
2013



A Study of Age Reporting in Selected Arab Censuses of Population is a publication by the Statistics Division of the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA). It provides a brief overview of census-taking in the Arab region, and assesses the accuracy of age-sex reporting and patterns of digit preference in recent population censuses in some Arab countries, at both the national and subnational levels.
 
Using microdata files from recent population censuses in six Arab countries, namely Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Morocco, Palestine and the Sudan, the study provides a district-level analysis of age misstatement (heaping) in population censuses in the region and examines the association between age heaping and selected household characteristics, such as literacy, sex, area of residence and household wealth.  The findings show that age misreporting continues to be a problem in censuses of population in Arab countries, and it is more severe for women than it is for men.  District-level analysis of census data shows that literacy is the best predictor of age heaping, followed by household wealth.