A study of digit preference and quality of age data in Turkish censuses

The authors study digit preference and the quality of age data in the 1945, 1955, and 1970 censuses of Turkey. "Using the age distributions in successive censuses and particular cohort groups as well as the analysis of stable population, severe misreporting of certain ages was found. The...age data seem to be influenced substantially by both response errors and coverage errors....[and] show heaping at ages ending in zero and five years. The pattern of heaping is pronounced from age 20 onwards and this is true both for males and females. Various analyses showed clear evidence of heaping in all the three censuses at the age group 40-44 years irrespective of sex. The magnitude of digit preference bias seems to be reducing with the passage of time. This is especially true in the case of females. The possibility of increased female literacy as a factor underlying this reduction is pointed out. Other implications of the results are discussed." (SUMMARY IN FRE AND ITA)