Errors in chinese age statistics.

The first section of this paper is devoted to an analysis of some theoretical aspects of the Chinese system of reckoning ages, and the second section offers a method of collecting the age statistics of a Chinese population: A discussion of the errors found in the age returns and the unsuccessful measures taken to eradicate these errors in the Malayan censuses conducted prior to1957 leads to an appraisal of the method of collecting Chinese age data in the 1957 census.