An Evaluation of the Age and Sex Data from the Census Population of Canada, Provinces and Territorie

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An Evaluation of the Age and Sex Data from the
Census Population of Canada,Provinces and
Territories, 1971 to 2001

• BY
• Shirley Loh, Ravi Verma and Margaret Michalowski
• Prepared for presentation at the Canadian
  Population Society Annual Meetings, Winnipeg,
  Manitoba, June 2004. This paper reports the
  results of research and analysis undertaken by
  Demography Division, Statistics Canada staff. It
  reflects the opinions of the authors and, not
  necessarily, those of Statistics Canada and is
  released to inform and to encourage discussion.

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Outline of Presentation

• Objectives Review of literature
• Methodology
• Pyramid, Digit Preference Index,
• Age-Sex Accuracy index
• Source of Data
• Results
• Conclusion and Discussion

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Objectives and Review of literature

• Objectives
• To investigate if age heaping is present in
  single year age data on population
• To examine the overall accuracy of population
  data by age and sex
• To compare the level of accuracy of age-sex
  population with some countries
• Review of Literature
• Norland, Litven and Cottrell (1977)
• Bourbeau and Lebel (2000)
• Poston and associates (2003)

4
Methodology

• Graphical presentation of population by age and
  sex
• Computing Myers indices for detecting digit
  preference in single year age reporting
• Computing age-sex accuracy index (U.N. Method)
  based on 5 year age group

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Myers Index(unadjusted)
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U.N. Method for Age-Sex Accuracy(Unadjusted,
Canada, 1971)
Criteria of the U.N. INDEX Under 20 ?
Accurate 20 to 40 ? Inaccurate Over 40
? Highly Inaccurate
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Source of Data

• Census population by age and sex, adjusted for
  net census undercount, 1971-2001

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Results Myers' Index of Age Heaping by Sex,
Unadjusted Census Population, Canada(Age
Interval 20-69)
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Results (contd) Myers Index of Age Heaping,
Canada, Provinces and Territories
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Results (contd) United Nations Age-sex Accuracy
Index, Canada, Provinces and Territories
Accurate Inaccurate Highly
Inaccurate
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Limitations of the UN Age-sex Accuracy Index
(Siegel and Swanson, 2004)

• Central age group not included in the calculation
  of the age ratio
• Expected decline in sex ratio with increasing age
  not considered
• Considerable weight is given to the sex ratio
  component in the formula

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Results (contd) Revised Age-Sex Accuracy Index,
Canada, Provinces and Territories
Accurate Inaccurate Highly
Inaccurate
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Results (contd) Age-Sex Accuracy Index for
Canada in 2001 and for 42 Countries of the World
in 2000
based on unadjusted population
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Conclusion

• Myers Indices Single Year Age Data
• No preference or avoidance of any year of birth
• Age-sex Accuracy Indices Five Year Age Group
  Data
• Accurate age-sex population data for Canada and
  all provinces except Prince Edward Island, Yukon
  and Northwest Territories
• The quality of Canadian age-sex population data
  is highly comparable to Sweden and Finland
• Unadjusted Census Population Myers indices and
  age-sex accuracy indices slightly higher than
  those based on adjusted census population

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Discussion

• No explanation provided by the United Nations for
  the classification of the three categories
• Did the introduction of question on date of birth
  in 1971 improve the quality of age-heaping?