Age and Sex

For each person interviewed, two ages have been provided:

• _hgage which is the age at last birthday as of the 30^th of June immediately preceding the fieldwork for that wave (for wave 1, ahgage is the respondents age at 30^th of June 2001 ); and
• _hhiage which is the age at last birthday as of the date of interview for that wave (the interview dates for each wave spread over 6 to 8 months).

For non-interviewed people in responding households, _hgage has also been provided on the enumerated file.

On the household file, the age of each person as of the 30^th of June is provided in the variables _hgage1 to _hgage14, where _hgage1 is for person 01, etc.⁵

For the small number of cases where age was not provided, it has been imputed via a hotdeck method⁶ and _hgagef, _hgagef1 to _hgagef16 flags which cases have been imputed.

Note that if the respondent provides a correction to the date of birth printed on the Household Form each wave, this correction is applied back through the previous waves. As a result the above calculated ages may change from one release to another (hopefully not by much!). This is why you may find some 14 year olds interviewed in a previous wave.

Similarly, if the respondent provides a correction to the sex printed on the Household Form each wave, this correction is applied back through the previous waves.

Endnotes: