Age Misreporting and Age-Selective Underenumeration: Sources, Patterns, and Consequences for Demographic Analysis

摘要

The report reviews the data and conclusions of studies of age misreporting errors, age-selective underenumeration, and the interview process regarding the collection of information on age. The report also reviews techniques used to detect distortions in reported age distributions, and it describes typical patterns of distortion and how these distortions affect demographic estimation procedures. Age misreporting is only one type of response error that arises in data collection processes. Others include underreporting and misdating of vital events, inaccurate reporting of information on individual and household characteristics, and the failure to include required or requested information.