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Occasional Paper

Modelling Census Under-Enumeration - A Logistic Regression Perspective

The Scottish 2001 Census - Single Parenthood

The number of single parent households in a ward has previously been used as an indicator of economic deprivation. In Scotland, 91.6% of single parent households (with dependent children) have a female head of household. This is similar to the UK standard. However if this is broken down by age, there are lot more young female single parents: 94.6% of lone parents aged 24 or under with a child under four years old are female. This could be attributed to the fact that Scotland has one of the highest rates of teenage motherhood in Europe – approximately four times the Western European average despite a decline in fertility rates across Europe (Miller, 2003).

However the changing household composition in Scotland, and the UK as a whole, shows that this group can be used to identify the more complex households, mentioned earlier. As an example, because a single parent is eligible for higher social security benefits than a cohabiting couple (with dependents), the number of single parent households might have been over-stated by the Census. Such households differ from the conventional definition of cohabitation, although they have similar household compositions. It is best illustrated by an example. Suppose a single mother is in receipt of housing benefits. During the Census she has a boyfriend who lives with her, but might use his parents’ residence as a mailing address. When his parents were filling in the Census form, he was omitted from the usual household residents, since they consider him to be living with his girlfriend. At the same time he is omitted from the form at his girlfriend’s address. Evidence from previous censuses and the pilot studies prior to the actual Census taking place in 2001 showed that a much more rigorous approach to under-enumeration was needed. Therefore, the Census Coverage Survey was carried out on a much larger scale, with enumerators adept at clarifying any ambiguities during the interview process [Footnote 1]. They were able to identify these young males and the results were fed into the imputation process. Placing these males into the appropriate households alters them, and in most cases changed single parent households to a new household structure with a female and a live-in boyfriend.

Footnote 1