Census of Populations – Frequently Asked Questions

Q. For the  2006 5% COPSAR Census Sample of Anonymised Records we have been looking at the factors affecting volunteering in the data and have noticed something odd about the  5% COPSAR sample that we wanted to ask your advice about, as it may affect the validity of our findings. The official census reports show that 16.4% of persons over the age of 15 were involved in voluntary activity, with the 45-49 age group having the highest volunteer participation rate, 23.3% (reported here). We were doing some analysis and noticed that in the COPSAR data, only 5.8% of persons over the age of 15 appeared to be involved in voluntary activity, with the 45-49 age group at just 7.5% participation rate.  We were wondering if you could help us to understand this seeming gap between the census figures and the corresponding figures in the COPSAR sample. This may affect the validity of our findings, so we are keen to understand it.

A. We have assessed the COPSAR sample data file and there is an error in the code for the voluntary activity variable. The voluntary activity variable only includes those that ticked the first category "Helping or voluntary work with a social or charitable organisation" and not as it should, all 5 voluntary activity types. 

 

 

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