Estimating number of children in villages of Dagestan: a comparison of data sources
Abstract
The paper deals with different ‘local’ sources of data on the number of children and fertility in the Republic of Dagestan (North Caucasus, Russia). A study of ‘local’ sources on fertility in comparison with census data in Dagestan is necessary for two reasons. First, the region is known to have serious problems with official demographic statistics, so that all alternative sources should be considered. Second, different parts of Dagestan demonstrate outstanding diversity with respect to fertility, which needs to be studied and explained. The paper discusses the results of a field study undertaken in Dagestan in 2015. In the course of that study, data on the number of children born in different years between 2000 and 2014 were collected from local administrations, medical institutions and schools in ten villages of Dagestan. The data of the three sources never fully agreed with each other or with census data, but showed regular, statistically significant correspondences. We hypothesize about possible reasons for the differences between the data of the sources on the basis of our interviews with local officials in the villages under study. We argue that the data of medical institutions and schools should be the most reliable. We also compare data of local administrations and medical institutions on the number of women of different age groups and study the possibility of using these data for calculating fertility rates (crude birth rate, total fertility rate, etc.) for different parts of Dagestan, in order to establish the differences between their fertility dynamics.
Downloads
References
Alieva V.F. (2007). Demograficheskie protsessy v sovremennom Dagestane [Demographic processes in today’s Daghestan]. Moscow: Nauka. 325 p.
Andreev E.M. (2012). O tochnosti rezul'tatov rossiyskikh perepisey naseleniya i stepeni doveriya k raznym istochnikam informatsii [On correctness of Russian censuses and reliability of different information sources] // Voprosy statistiki [Problems in statistics]. 11: 21-35.
Bogoyavlensky D.D. (2008). Vse li rossiyskie narody verno poschitali? [Were all Russian ethnic groups registered correctly?] // Demoscope Weekly. 319 – 320. URL: http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/2008/0319/tema01.php (accessed 13.12.2016).
Bogoyavlensky D.D. (2012). Perepis' 2010: etnicheskiy srez [2010 Census: ethnic aspect] // Demoscope Weekly, 531 – 532. URL: http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/2012/0531/tema03.php (accessed 13.12.2016).
Bogoyavlensky D.D. (2014). Etnicheskaya differentsiatsiya rozhdaemosti v Rossii [Ethnic differentiation of fertility in Russia] // Naselenie Rossii 2012: dvadtsatyy ezhegodnyy demograficheskiy doklad [Population of Russia: twentieth annual demographic report] / A.G. Vishnevsky, ed. Moskva: Izd. dom Vysshey shkoly ekonomiki: 174-188.
Dagestanstat [Daghestanstat] (2015). Dagestan - 2015: statisticheskiy sbornik [Daghestan-2015: Statistical sample]. Makhachkala.
Dyson T., M. Moore (1983). On kinship structure, female autonomy, and demographic behavior in India // Population and development review. 9(1): 35-60.
Kazenin K.I. (2015а). Regulirovaniye zemel'nykh otnosheniy v Dagestane: sotsial'no-ekonomicheskiye korni "traditsionalizatsii"[Regulation of land relations in Dagestan: socio-economic roots of "traditionalization"]// Ekonomicheskaya politika [Economic policy]. 3: 113-133.
Kazenin K.I. (2015b). Zemel'naya reforma v Dagestane: sotsial'no-politicheskie riski [Land reform in Daghestan: social and political risks] // Ekonomicheskoe razvitie Rossii [Economic development of Russia]. 6: 34-39.
Kazenin K., V. Kozlov (2016a). Islam and fertility in the end of the first demographic transition: the case of North Caucasus / Paper presented at European population conference-2016. Mainz, September 1-3.
Kazenin K.I., V.A. Kozlov (2016b). Omolozhenie materinstva v Dagestane: tendentsiya ili artefakt? [Young mother’s age in Daghestan: real tendency or artefact of statistics] // Demograficheskoe obozrenie [Demographic review]. 3(3): 100-123.
Muduev Sh.S. (2003). Naselenie i khozyaystvo Dagestana na rubezhe vekov [Population and economy of Daghestan at the break of the centuries]. Makhachkala: Dagknigoizdat. 304 p.
