Census enumeration in remote Australia: Issues for aboriginal data analysis

Given the crucial role played by census data in informing economic and social policies directed at the Aboriginal population in remote areas, some assessment of the quality of remote area data is required as these are derived from enumeration procedures which differ fundamentally from the standard approach employed in the census. This paper discusses the remote area census enumeration strategy employed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), with a particular focus on the Northern Territory, and highlights possible implications for the interpretation of census counts and census characteristics.     

Mortality in Vietnam, 1979–1989

Little is known about past and present mortality in Vietnam, as the first official data on mortality have only recently become available from censuses taken in 1979 and 1989. Using these data, I estimate Vietnamese mortality during the intercensal period using two techniques that rely on age-specific growth rates from two successive age distributions. Intercensal emigration and differential completeness of census enumeration associated with massive outflows of refugees in the wake of the Vietnam War; population-redistribution policies, and a highly mobile population represent important sources of bias for the estimation of intercensal mortality. I incorporate several strategies to minimize bias from these sources and to select the method that is least sensitive to errors associated with them. Life expectancy at birth estimated for the 1979–1989 intercensal period is 61.4 years for males and 63.2 for females. These results suggest a trend of declining mortality between the 1970s and the 1980s and add solid empirical evidence to the debate over whether mortality in Vietnam has been deteriorating or improving.     

Mexico–US Migration: Views from Both Sides of the Border

Migration to the United States increased sharply in the 1980s and 1990s, raising political concerns. The immigrant flow from Mexico, both authorized and unauthorized, was particularly large. Good data would con‐tribute to rational discussion of this politically charged issue, but data on immigration, particularly of the unauthorized, are notoriously poor. This article applies residual estimation techniques to data from the 1990 and 2000 population censuses of Mexico and the United States (Mexico‐born population) to quantify the intercensal migration flow, arguing that the reasons why unauthorized migrants might avoid enumeration in the United States would not adversely affect data from Mexico. Results suggest that the annual net flow of migrants aged 10 to 80 years from Mexico to the United States averaged between 324,000 and 440,000 between 1990 and 2000. A sensitivity analysis indicates that these results are quite robust (especially those using US data) to likely errors.     

New Estimates and Projections of Population Growth in Pakistan

Pakistan's population growth rate rose steadily from about 2.6 percent per annum in the early 1960s to a high of about 3.5 percent during the late 1980s. Since then it has declined to an estimated 2.1 percent for 2003. Growth rates calculated from the population censuses, which show a very different picture, are distorted by differential accuracy of enumeration. During the period of rising growth rates, fertility was constant at just under 7 children per woman while life expectancy at birth rose by nearly 20 years. Fertility decline began in the late 1980s, bringing the population growth rate down with it. Remarkably, there appears to have been little change in life expectancy over the past 15 years.     

Demographic Changes in Myanmar since 1983: An Examination of Official Data

According to official estimate, the total population of Myanmar reached 59.8 million in 2010. Yet, serious doubt exists on the reliability of these data. From the body of empirical evidence, best estimates of mortality and fertility are derived and serve to reconstruct prospectively the population of the country from 1983 to 2010. Despite the uncertainty regarding the levels and trends in international migration, the results are unequivocal: given the observed development in mortality and fertility, the population of Myanmar could not have reached 59.8 million in 2010. In addition to encouraging reconsideration of current population estimates, this analysis should also prompt the government and the international community to redouble their efforts in preparing for the 2014 census; carrying out a high‐quality count of the entire population, ideally followed by a post‐enumeration survey; conducting a thorough analysis of the census data; and publicly releasing the census results and accompanying analytical volumes in a timely manner.     

China’s Demographic Future Under the New Two-Child Policy

China implemented the two-child policy in 2016, however, potential impacts of this new policy on its population reality have not been adequately understood. Using population census data and 1% population sampling data during the period of 1982–2015, this study develops a fertility simulation model to explore the effects of the two-child policy on women’s total fertility rate, and employs Cohort Component Method in population projections to examine China’s demographic future with different fertility regimes. The fertility simulation results reveal that the two-child policy will make significantly positive effects on China’s total fertility rate through increasing second births, leading to a sharp but temporary increase in the first 5 years after the implementation of the new policy. In addition, population projections using simulated total fertility rates show that the Chinese population would reach its peak value around the middle 2020s and be faced with the reduction of labor force supply and rapid aging process, featured with remarkable increases in both size and share of the elderly population. The findings suggest that the two-child policy would undoubtedly affect China’s fertility rates and demographic future; however, the effects are mild and temporary.

     

The completeness of enumeration in the 1973 census of the population of Colombia

The effort is made to determine the true size and distribution by age and sex of the population of the Republic of Colombia in October 1973. After initially arriving at estimates of the levels of fertility and mortality during the intercensal period and then correcting the 1964 census population for age misreporting and selective undernumeration of males, a hypothetical populaiton corresponding to October 1973 is constructed. Comparing the constructed population with the population observed in the census yelds an estimate of completeness of enumeration in 1973 that is relative to the enumeration of females in 1964. This estimate is obtained under the assumption that net international migration during the period was of negligible importance. As there is reason to believe that this is not a valid assumption and upon examining the limited amount of evidence available, speculaitons are made concerning the amount of net out-migration to have occurred during the 1964-1973 period and the size of the coresponding modificaiton in the estimate of completeness of enumeration. After adjusting for underenumeration of males in 1964 and neglecting the impact of international migration, a theoretical 1973 census population of 23,201,000 was estimated. Apart from the total number of people enumerated, the information that was analyzed from the advance sample appears to be of good quality, at least in relation to prior censuses. The estimates of fertility and mortality reveal an important decline in Colombian fertility. By coming up with separate estimates of infant and childhood and adult mortality, it has been possible to shed new light on the shape and the level of mortality in Colombia. The new Brass method for estimating adult mortality provides reliable results even when mortality has been declining, and there are recognizable distortions in the distribution of the population by age.     

The use of sampling in conjunction with population censuses

In Asia and the Pacific, the practice of governments is increasingly to collect information on their populations' size, age and sex composition, geographic distribution, and certain other basic demographic and socioeconomic characteristics on the basis of a complete (100%) enumeration, and to supplement this basic information by collecting information on a larger range of variables on a sample basis. The additional information, which is gathered as part of the census operation, may be related to such population characteristics as migration, employment, fertility, and health. A complete census is generally indispensable for obtaining information about small domains, and also for obtaining politically important data, which must be seen to be free from sampling variability. A complete census is typically confined to obtaining a detailed picture of the number and basic structural characteristics of the entire population, with as much detail as possible about local areas. Sample surveys can quickly obtain a wider variety of more complex data. Sampling applications for the census include 1) using sampling in the design and control of census operations, such as in planning, testing, controlling, and evaluating the census; 2) using sample enumeration to supplement items covered in the complete census; 3) sampling the census results for processing to make the results available more quickly and at lower cost; and 4) extracting samples of microlevel files of detailed census data so as to facilitate dissemination of primary data.     

A multilevel analysis of the effects of a reproductive health programme that encouraged informed choice of contraceptive method rather than use of officially preferred methods,China 2003–2005

Using data from the Food and Agricultural Organization and some other sources, it was estimated that rapid population growth in countries with an initial average calorie availability of below 2800 per head inhibited improvements in food production and availability per head during the 1980s and early 1990s. There were statistically significant negative effects of population growth on the growth in the production of noncereal food crops, milk, and meat, and in total food production. Because net food imports and aid shipments of cereals responded similarly, rather than acting as compensatory factors, the development in total calorie availability per head was least satisfactory in countries with the most rapid growth. A rapid increase in the number of adults of working age appeared to be no less disadvantageous than an increase in the number of children or elderly. Weaker effects were found when the entire 1970-95 period was considered. There were few indications that poverty, illiteracy, or land or water scarcity made it particularly difficult to cope with a growing population.     

Fertility differentials as evidence of incipient fertility decline in a developing country

Abstract Age data from the 1960 and earlier censuses of Ghana allow the construction of child-woman ratios which appear to indicate the existence of a substantial urban-rural fertility differential. Plausible assumptions of urban-rural mortality differentials increase the apparent fertility differential. In this paper recently published data for Statistical Areas in the country's larger towns are used to demonstrate that one explanation for the fertility differential is almost certainly the enumeration of some females in the towns, while one or more of their surviving children were enumerated outside. Nevertheless, in 1960 the four largest towns exhibited birth levels which are likely to have been about 11% below those of the population in the surrounding regions. Roughly half the differential can be attributed to a general urban-rural differential and half to socio-economic differentials within the towns. It is shown that most fertility reduction within the towns may be explained by delayed female marriage, and that such delay is associated with extended education. It is also shown that amongst the higher socio-economic status groups a small part of the reduction can probably be attributed to the prevention of pregnancy within marriage, and that the making of such attempts is positively associated with extended education, urban birth, participation in first and monogamous marriages, Protestantism, and the holding of views about the harmful effect of high population growth rates on attempts to raise living standards. It is argued that these fertility differentials are evidence of some fertility decline among key groups in the population and that such declines are likely to become more widespread.     

Establishing trends in atsic regional council populations using census data: A cautionary note

This paper points out that limitations in official census data for Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders draw into question the validity of trend analysis based on time series data for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) regional council areas. Accordingly, the meaningful application of projection techniques to estimate future population profiles using existing census data is severely restricted. Among the difficulties encountered in reconstructing council area populations are census boundary changes over time, changes in enumeration techniques and coverage, the problems posed by self-identification and associated population growth, and, in some cases, the difficulty of matching ATSIC regional council boundaries with census geography. Following discussion of these problems, detailed figures showing changes in the size of the Aboriginal and Islander populations and labour force in each council area are presented using 1976 as the base year. As expected, geographic patterns of population and labour-force change are difficult to discern and exact reasons for comparative growth or decline are impossible to determine. The paper concludes that reverse projections for regional council areas using 1991 Census data would provide a more reliable basis for establishing demographic trends. Although not entirely adequate, these reconstructions for ATSIC regional councils are the only estimates of these populations that have been undertaken to date.     

对我国2010年人口普查事后调查工作的若干建议

人口普查不可能100％计数每一个人。世界上许多国家都在人口普查后组织事后调查,使用双系统估计量另行求得一个全国人口真实数的估计数,并以此为标准估计人口普查的净遗漏率。我国历次人口普查后都进行了事后调查,其主要缺陷是未对抽取的样本事后分层,未估计“全国真实的人口数”。建议我国2010年事后调查方案在克服这两个缺陷的基础上科学确定全国的样本总量。实行两步抽样等。     

关于中国1990年代低生育水平的再讨论

本文根据全国第五次人口普查样本计算了 1 990年代各年份的分性别平均初婚年龄 ,这一结果再次表明这一时期中初婚年龄有显著提高。本文还根据以往历次调查的各年份年龄别生育率按队列计算了累计生育率 ,结果发现 2 0 0 0年时各队列的累计生育率水平高于五普数据中各队列的平均活产子女数。本文还就队列累计生育率计算结果详细分析了 1 990年代终身生育水平的趋势。这些分析从一个新的角度说明 ,1 990年代各队列的终身生育水平也在发生显著的下降 ,正在接近现行生育政策所要求的水平     

Mapping of population density

The Bureau of the Census listing of geographical coordinates of centroids of all enumeration districts together with population counts from the U. S. 1970 Census of Population was used to contruct via computer five nationwide geographical grids of population density with sector dimensions of 0.01, 0.02, 0.04, 0.1, and 0.25 degrees of latitude and longitude. The entire population of a district was assigned to a grid sector if the coordinates of the district centroid fell within the boundaries of the sector. The sectors were then rank-ordered according to population density, and listings were made of sector population, population density, geographical location, cumulative population, area of sector, and cumulative area. The five sets of data were synthesized into single equations describing population as a function of density in one case and of area in another. From these data it was found, for example, that about 800,000 people live in 19 sectors of 0.01-degree dimensions with a population density of 100,000 people per square mile or greater (nearly all in Manhattan); about 10 million live in 183 sectors of 0.02-degree dimensions with a population density of 23,000 per square mile or greater; and about half of the total U. S. population, that is, about 100 million people, reside within about 0.6 percent of the area of the United States, that is, within 20,000 square miles.Four representative displays of population density are shown for the Northeast Corridor, including isometric views and a contour map.     

快速城市化背景下城市公共服务需求偏好研究——以上海为例

近年来,我国进入快速城市化阶段,城市人口快速膨胀,人口结构复杂化,居民对公共服务的需求多样化。本文以上海市为例,通过问卷数据,从人口学视角,通过回归分析不同人群公共服务的偏好。结果显示,当前居民对公共服务的需求不仅有数量增加,对质量、服务水平及环境都有所要求;同时人口区域结构对公共服务的需求具有显著影响,人口自然结构、社会结构的影响较小,区域公共服务差异、户籍性质造成的身份差异是影响公共服务需求的主导因素。     

China's missing children: the 2000 census underreporting surprise

We compare the age and sex structure of China's 2000 population census to an estimate of that structure derived from a projection from the 1990 census. Based on China's own official estimates of demographic change, our intercensal analysis indicates a shortfall in enumeration of more than a quarter of all children under age 5 and an eighth of those between 5 and 9, a total of nearly 37 million children missing in the 2000 census. We show that the shortfall is primarily due to underreporting of children in the census. Sex differences in child underreporting were fairly minor. Child underreporting in China is not unprecedented, but child underreporting rates in 2000 were about triple those of previous censuses. We attribute the increase primarily to policy changes beginning in the early 1990s that held officials at all jurisdictional levels personally responsible for enforcing birth quotas.     

Population growth and air quality in California

Demographers are often interested in the environmental impacts of population growth. I examine the impact of growth specifically on air quality in California. In recent decades, California has suffered from notoriously polluted air and has experienced rapid population growth. Despite the population .growth, air quality actually has improved since the early 1980s due to aggressive regulatory efforts. Using data for 56 counties, I analyze the contribution of population growth to trends in atmospheric emissions of five regulated pollutants from 1980 to 1990, controlling for trends in per capita income and regulatory efforts. The analysis is disaggregated by source of emissions and demonstrates that population growth is strongly associated with some sources of emissions but not with others. Thus, the overall impact of population growth depends upon the composition of production and consumption activities in each county. I also explore whether the trend in number of households predicts better than the trend in number of persons, and whether the impact of population growth depends upon the age structure or source of growth (immigration or domestic increase). Generally, these alternative specifications of population do not improve the models of atmospheric emissions.     

人口因素对CO2排放的影响:区域差异与动态变化

基于1995—2009年中国省级面板数据,利用IPAT模型建立基本的分析框架,研究人口数量、人口年龄结构、人口城市化率以及家庭规模等人口因素对我国CO2排放的影响,结果显示,由于人口因素与CO2排放的关系与经济发展特征有关,而我国处于经济快速增长的过程中且区域经济发展存在差异,使得影响我国全国CO2排放的人口因素不同于各区域内部,在经济发展的不同阶段、甚至不同年份,导致省际CO2排放差异的人口因素也在不断变化。     

Population density,urban centrality,and agricultural intensification in Jordan

This paper explores the relationship between population growth, agricultural production, and urban development. Ongoing debate in the literature regarding the relationship between population and economic development is restricted by the limited availability of time series data and the difficulty of evaluating causality using cross-sectional data. This analysis uses the special case of Jordan with its massive refugee flows to evaluate the influence of a sudden and exogenous change in population in urban areas on the intensification of agricultural production. Spearman Rank Order correlations are calculated from time series data to show that the districts which experienced the most rapid population growth and increases in population density also exhibited the largest increases in agricultural intensity. Cross-sectional analysis in which measures of agricultural intensification were predicted by population density and urbanization factors reveals a significant interaction between density and urban centrality, where centrality is an indicator of the accessibility of urban goods to rural communities. The results suggest that population density has a strongly positive effect on agricultural intensity in areas with few urban goods and services available, whereas the influence of population density on agricultural intensity is substantially reduced in areas with a greater diversity of urban goods and services.This article is based on a paper presented at the 1992 Meeting of the Southern Demographics Association, Charleston, SC, 15–17 October 1992.     

On the Origins of the United States Government's International Population Policy

Based on documents obtained from the archives of the Agency for International Development and on the author's interviews with participants in the field, this article describes the evolution of America's international population policy. The analysis highlights the perceived negative view of the consequences of rapid population growth that were popular among American policy makers during the 1960s. Also discussed are organizational and policy changes that took place within the Agency for International Development's population programme during its early years. The article concludes that the origins of America's international population programme were fundamentally conservative, and based on the assumption that a certain demographic balance was an essential feature of a properly ordered social life.