A note on the age of the head in the Survey of Consumer Finances.

The variable X8022 is the age of the respondent (which actually means the "head", in other words, the husband/male partner in couple households.)
However, the next variable in the SCF codebook is X14, Reconciled Age.

X14 is designed to correct for inaccurate responses by the respondent by checking for inconsistencies, and is the variable that should be used.  In the 2004 SCF, on a weighted basis, X14 is the same as X8022 in 97.96% of the households, and on an unweighted basis, in 97.83% of the implicate/households.

In 1.99% of the cases (weighted) X8022 is one year less than X14, and in one set of five implicates, X8022 is 2 years less than X14, but on a weighted basis, the two year gap amounts to only 0.05 households.

In a small number of cases (0.12% on a weighted basis) X8022 is one year more than X14.  There appears to be one household with a larger gap, with four unweighted observations with X8022 being 5 years more than X14, and one unweighted observation with X8022 being 6 years more than X14.

There is a similar issue for the variables X104 and X19, where X19 is the Reconciled Age of the spouse/female partner in mixed sex couple households, and the younger partner in same sex couple households.  In 99.84% (weighted) of the households with a value for X104, it is the same as X19, and in 0.16% of the households, X104 is one year less than X19.  There appear to be six actual households with this one year difference.

Researchers should use X14 and X19 for age of the head and age of the spouse/partner, but obviously this choice will make little difference in analyses.

Sherman D. Hanna
August 22, 2006