Malawi Census 2008- birth month

INTERNATIONAL
1

Hie,

I am investigating variation in education attainment by birthmonth using the Malawi Census 2008. Tabulating birthmonth as a data consistency check reveals that the number of monthly births between January to June is more than double that for monthly births for July to December. This is strange and other sample surveys like the DHS 2010 do not show a similar pattern. Is this a coding error, a sampling error or is it even an error in the first place? Tabulation results are attached.

Thank you
Malawi Census 2008_b-3.docx (12.5 KB)

2

IPUMS-International drew the 10% Malawi 2008 sample directly from the 100% file. Because of this I was able to look at original frequencies from the 100% file and the pattern you are seeing is reflected there as well. This means that the values are accurate according to the original census responses. The Questionnaire Text may provided further insight into the matter.

I hope this helps.