The Quality of Age Reporting in the 2014 Morocco Census

Aiming to update the economic, demographic, and social characteristics and housing conditions of the population, Morocco has conducted its last General Population and Housing Census (GPHC) in 2014. Accurate data on age is a key element for decision making, and necessary to build policies and improve health indicators. The main objective of this paper is to assess the quality of age reporting in the 2014 Morocco census. Based on the 2014 Morocco census data, we calculated the Myers' index to evaluate whether there is age heaping on any digit between 0 and 9. We used the United Nations Age-Sex Accuracy index (UNACI) to examine the fiveyear age-sex data. In 2014, the overall Myers' index, for the total Moroccan population, was 1.35 (1.39 for men, 1.32 for women, 1.50 in urban, and 1.41 in rural). The digit scores were approximatively equal and close to zero. The UNACI score was 20.62 (23.63 in urban and 20.45 in rural). According to our study, the age reporting data in the studied census was of good quality. In addition, remarkable progress in data quality was detected compared to the previous censuses. Consequently, information from this census can be used in the country's development. However, we found that grouped age data was of poor quality in two regions. Thus, more attention should be paid to improving data quality in those regions in the coming census, especially among men. We provided clear and reliable information on age reporting in the 2014 Morocco census. That helps to improve the quality of age reporting in the 2024 census.

Automated summary

This paper assesses the quality of age reporting in the 2014 Morocco census. The study found that overall data quality was good and showed significant progress compared to previous censuses. However, poor quality was detected in grouped age data in two regions, highlighting the need for improvement in future censuses.