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Multilingual Demographic Dictionary, second unified edition, English volume

Post-enumeration test

Multilingual Demographic Dictionary, second unified edition, English vol.
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Post-enumeration test  (POST-ENUMERATION test)


The accuracy 1 of population statistics will depend among other factors on the completeness 2 of the count of individuals, groups or events on which they are based. Omissions 3 and undercount 3 tend to generate underestimation 4 while multiple counting 5 leads to over-estimation 6. Additional sources of error include misreporting 7 of a characteristic such as age and classification errors 8. Such inaccuracies are sometimes detected by post-enumeration tests 9 or quality checks 10. Occasionally certain questions are not answered or insufficiently answered and this may lead to considerable inaccuracy, the incidence of which is indicated by the frequency of the class designated as non-response 11, not stated 11, unknown 11, undeclared 11, not specified 11, poorly defined 11 or misspecified 11 etc...

  • 1. Accuracy, n. - accurate, adj.
  • 2. Completeness, n. - complete, adj. The terms "complete" and "completeness" are used here to express the absence of omissions. The same terms may also be used to refer to coverage, as in 202-4.
  • 3. The omission of some events from vital registration is called underregistration, and from a census or survey, underenumeration.
  • 5. The expression double counts is often used in this sense.

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