United Nations Economic Commission for EuropeStatistical DivisionUnited Nations Economic Commission for EuropeStatistical Division

Producing gender statistics through population censuses:

UNECE

Linda Hooper, Statistician

Social and Demographic Statistics Section

Rome, 10-12 November 2007 Slide 2

UNECE Census Recommendations

Rome, 10-12 November 2007 Slide 3

Three main points:

1) Question wording

2) Sub-population groups

3) Dissemination of data

Rome, 10-12 November 2007 Slide 4

Question wording

How can census questions be improved to contain more gender relevant concepts?

For example:

• can census questions be improved to include all women and men who do work according to the ILO definition?

• Do the current questions capture persons who have “atypical jobs”?

Regional perspective on census and gender analysis

Rome, 10-12 November 2007 Slide 5

Question wording

• Formally there is a clear distinction between employed and non employed population

• ILO definition: a person is currently employed if he/she has worked at least one hour the week previous the survey

• Work: for income (cash or kind) or unpaid production of goods

Regional perspective on census and gender analysis

Rome, 10-12 November 2007 Slide 6

Question wording

Prior 1994, US Labour Force Survey (LFS): “What were you doing most of last week—working, keeping house, or something else?”

For women who primarily kept house but also did some paid work, this question appears to have

led to some underreporting of work

Now, US LFS: “Last week, did you do any work for pay or profit?”

Following the redesign, the survey found an increase in the number of workers, primarily women, who usually worked fewer than 10

hours per week

Regional perspective on census and gender analysis

Rome, 10-12 November 2007 Slide 7

Question wording

Elimination of asking head of household

http://www.cso.ie/census/documents/census_2006_guide_25-27.pdf

Rome, 10-12 November 2007 Slide 8

Detailed data and its use

Gender analysis of special populations• Inclusion of questions to identify the

subpopulation group status in the census, can provide very accurate data to measure the different social and economic status of the individuals according to both sex and minority status.

Rome, 10-12 November 2007 Slide 9

Unemployment rate by sex and ethnicity, United Kingdom 2004

Source: Office for National Statistics, United Kingdom

Rome, 10-12 November 2007 Slide 10

Dissemination

• Dissemination• Equality in Ireland 2007 by the Central

Statistics Office of Ireland Domains covered in the report:

– Population

– Martial status

– Family status

– Sexual orientation

– Religion

– Age

– Disability

– Ethnicity

– Traveller community

Rome, 10-12 November 2007 Slide 11

Use and dissemination

• Geographic distribution Data from population censuses may at times be

presented and analysed in terms of statistics for a wide variety of geographical units ranging from the country as a whole to individual small localities or city blocks.

Rome, 10-12 November 2007 Slide 12

Use and disseminationFamily composition

Working patterns of couples

Recombine dataEmployment by family situation in Ireland, 2006

0102030405060708090

100

no children youngest childaged 0-3

youngest childaged 4-5

youngest childaged 6-17

male

female

Source: Ireland CSO Census of Population, 2006