A new evaluation of United States census data on the extreme aged.
Population and mortality data for the extreme aged have generally been considered subject to a large degree of error, particularly for nonwhites. In this study, estimates of the United States population 85 years of age and over in 1960 are devised through a procedure known as the "method of extinct generations," which permits the reconstruction of "extinct" population cohorts from a series of annual death statistics. Estimates of the total population by single year of age and of sex-color groups by five-year age groups are compared with the 1960 census. With some exceptions, the data for whites show remarkable correspondence; the tally for nonwhites developed from death records falls considerably short of the census count, indicating a greater overstatement of age in the latter source.
D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D003710:Demography; D005006:Ethnicity; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008722:Methods; D009026:Mortality; D011153:Population; D012737:Sex Factors; D014481:United States