Measuring rural households and electricity access: A comparison of national census data and small-area health and demographic surveillance system (HDSS) data

Takwanisa Machemedze, Mercy Shoko, Mark Collinson and Martin Wittenberg
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Takwanisa Machemedze: DataFirst, University of Cape Town
Mercy Shoko: School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand; Demographic & Population Statistics, and Health & Vital Statistics, Statistics South Africa
Mark Collinson: Population and Public Health, School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand; MRC/Wits University Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt); South African Population Research Infrastructure Network (SAPRIN), Department of Science and Technology and South African Medical Research Council

No 290, SALDRU Working Papers from Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town

Abstract: Progress on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals requires high quality measurement. Too few attempts are made to assess the accuracy of existing measurements and how it changes over time. We compare household counts and electrification rates for the Agincourt Health and Demographic Surveillance Site (HDSS), as measured in the 1996, 2001 and 2011 national censuses and in the database of the HDSS. The household measurements in the two systems agree within a few percentage points in 2001 and 2011 but show much bigger divergences in 1996. The population counts also show impressive agreement, with perhaps some over-enumeration of older males in the national census. Overall, survey and census information seem to provide accurate measures of population access to electricity.

Keywords: Electricity access; rural households; HDSS data (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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