Determination of factors that influence digit preference: A Case study of South African Census 2011 Age-Sex date

Abstract

The age distribution of a population is one of the most important demographic factors that plays a major role in describing and making projections about the population. Age distribution determine life expectancy, fertility and migration. It suffers most of the difficulties with regard to its accuracy, due to age misstatement and other factors. The study sought to determine the factors that influence digit preference in Age data using the South African census 2011 Age-sex data. Various methods were applied to examine the objectives of the study. The Visual Inspection methods (Line graph and Population Pyramid), Statistical methods (Age Ratio and Sex Ratio) and multivariate methods (Generalized linear model, Principal Component analysis and Regression analysis) which have been reviewed in detail in the study. This study utilized a full age dataset in single years. Based on the United Nation Age-sex Accuracy Index which was found to be 18.3, it shows that the data collected was of good quality. Besides the results deduced from the analysis to determine the quality of data, the study found that education level, place of residence, gender and ethnic group are the factors that influence digit preference. This was provided as evidence by calculated p-values <0.05, showing a positive relationship for generalized linear model. Principal component analysis and Regression analysis confirm the findings by Generalized linear model