menage - Millennium Development Goals Indicators

simply living apart and who mayor may not intend to remain apart.Since laws and practices with regard to legal separation differ withinand among countries, genuine comparability for this group is probablyout of the question. Because of this, separated persons are generallyincluded in the category married, although-as will be seen in thetable--they are tabulated separately by 49 countries and combinedwith divorced in 15.The disposition of "marital status unknown" in this table may alsobe the source of international non-comparability. In some countries,this characteristic is never recorded as unknown, since a marital statusis assigned on the basis of other information. In these cases, thecategory will appear to have zero frequency even though it has ineffect been absorbed into others.One final limitation must not be overlooked in using the data fromthis table. It concerns the homogeneity, in so far as marital history isconcerned, of the persons represented by the frequencies in thevarious marital status categories. In this respect, only the single may besaid to represent a homogeneous group. Decedents reported as marriedmay have been previously divorced or widowed; those classified asdivorced were previously married and some may also have beenpreviously widowed; widowed persons were previously married,widowed or divorced. Because of this overlapping of categories, none,with the exception of single, is actually complete as regards maritalhistory. All exclude persons who have changed status.Table 8Table 8 shows the age of female population beyond 15 years, thenumber childless, the aggregate number of children living and the netfertility ratio. These data are included in this issue because theyprovide some idea of "nucleus family size", as approximated from thenumber of surviving offspring. These ratios can be used to supplementor to evaluate the reliability of data on "size of household", shown intable 12.The data are from censuses taken in the period 1955-1967 andthose obtained from sample surveys are shown for countries where nocensus of the national population was held during the period. Thesame type of information, from censuses and sample surveys takenbetween 1955 and 1965 was shown in table 10 of the 1965 DemographicYearbook. Data by size groups of surviving children fromtaken between 1955 and 1965 was shown in table 10 of the 1965Demographic Yearbook. Data by size groups of surviving children fromcensuses and surveys taken between 1955 and 1963 appeared in table17 of the 1963 Demographic Yearbook, while data for 1949-1959appeared in the 1959 Demographic Yearbook and those from censuseswhich took place during the years 1949-1954 was shown in the 1955issue. Data for earlier years may be found in the 1954 and 1949/50issues.Age of mother is defined as age at last birthday or completed yearsand is classified in five-year groups from 15 to 49, with a terminalgroup of 50 years and over, and unknown.The number ofliving children is an aggregate, the source of which isthe census surveyor an estimate constructed by the Statistical Officeby the method described under "Computation". Women for whomnumber of children was given as "unknown" are included with childlesswomen.Coverage: Table 8 includes 43 distributions for 40 geographic areas.Ratio computation:Net fertility ratios are the number of living children in each age-ofmothergroup, per 1 000 female population in that age group, asrecorded at the census or survey.To make these indexes more widely available when the aggregatenumber of living children was not reported, an approximation of thisvalue was calculated in the Statistical Office using the base data whichprovide the number of issue in 9 size-of-family categories. The methodof estimation is briefly the following: (1) multiply each child-numbercategory from 0 to 5 by its corresponding population frequency, (2)multiply the population in the 6-10 class by 8 as an average of theclass interval. (3) multiply the population in the residual category by11, the lower class limit, (4) multiply the population in the "unknown"category by zero on the assumption that it was likely to be "nochildren", and sum the products. Where there are deviations fromthese size-categories, the frequency in the category 6-9 was multipliedby 7, that in the class 6 and over, or 7 and over, by 9 and that in theclass 10 and over, by 10.The resultant estimate is no doubt low, inasmuch as the minimumclass limit has usually been used to evaluate the residual category andthe "unknowns" are all equated to zero. Nevertheless. it provides anindex of family size which --employed with proper cautlon- can bequite useful.Limitations: International comparability of these data IS limited byvariations among countries in the definition of the groups of women towhom the statistics refer: some coincide with the standard of "allfemale population 15 years of age and over"; others refer to "allwomen who have ever been married"; in two instances. they are"married women only". These variations, when known, are noted inthe tables.Perhaps the major limitation on the reliability of the indices derivedfrom data in table 8 is that the ilnswer to the question on "number ofchildren surviving" is subject to many response errors. The answer maybe in error because of misinformation, lack of knowledge on the part ofthe informant (who often is not the woman involved). faulty memoryor misinterpretation of the meaning of the question. Grown childrenwho have left home may be overlooked; illegitimate children may bedeliberately omitted.There is also considerable variation in the proportion of women forwhom the number of children is given as "unknown".Consequently, except for comparisons between countries where thegroup of women covered is the same. and between distributions inwhich unknowns are unimportant, the ratios should be used withcaution for international comparison of family size. They can, however,be utilized for comparisons of general trends or of relative differencesbetween age groups.In addition to the special limitations in comparability which arisefrom the special nature of the data, they are subject also to under- orover-enumeration and, to some extent, to differences in definition oftotal population. Both of these factors have been discussed on p. 8.The inaccuracies and variations in age reporting described andevaluated on pp. 8-9 are also important in relation to the data intable 18, especially in so far as they may affect the numbers of womenin each age group.Table 9The economically active female population classified by maritalstatus and cross-classified by age is set forth in table 9. These are datafor the latest available year from population censuses and samplesurveys taken between 1955 and 1967.This is the third time that a table of this type has been published inthe Demographic Yearbook, data from the 1950 censuses having beenshown in the 1956 Yearbook and those from the 1960 censuses, in the1964 issue.Economically active female population is defined as those womencurrently engaged or actively seeking productive work in some branchof the economy during a specified period of time. It thus includeswomen both seeking work for the first time and those seeking to reenterthe labor force. Women with ill-defined or unknown occupationsare to be included, but those of unknown status (i.e., employed,unemployed, etc.) are assumed to be inactive and excluded from theeconomically active sector.Marital status is classified into a maximum of seven and a minimumof four categories, depenciing on availability of data. The minimum,which is standard for the table, comprises single, married, widowedand divorced; these are augmented-if the data permit-by two subclassesof married, namely "consensually married" and "separated",and by unknown if required. When the four standard categories appearunqualified, they are assumed to be constituted as follows: (1) single,i.e., never married (including annulled); (2) married, including personsin stable de facto (customary or consensual) unions and personslegally or de facto estranged, i.e., separated from their spouses; (3)widowed, not remarried; (4) divorced, not re-married. Footnotes,brackets or changes in the stub, have been used to explain deviationsfrom the above.Age, defined as "completed years", is shown in 13 groups beginningwith under 15 years, 15-19, 20-24, and proceeding in five-year agegroups to 65 and over. An unknown category completes the classification.When economically active population was defined in terms of aminimum age, the stub of the table shows this minimum in the "under15" category and in the "total".Coverage: Marital status of the female economically active populationcross-classified with age is shown for 63 countries. Marginal totals22