National Institute of Statistics,
Geography and Informatics (INEGI), Prolongación Héroe de Nacozari No. 2301 Sur,
Fracc. Jardines del Parque, C.P. 20270, Aguascalientes, Ags.
1950, 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990 and 2000. In
addition, a Population and Housing Count was conducted in 1995 (this combined
for the first time the use of two types of questionnaire, namely a basic one
and a more detailed one; the detailed one was applied to a probability sample
of about 80,000 households and the basic one was applied to the other
households in the national territory). The present description refers to the
2000 population census (sample period from 7 to 18 February).
a) Total
population, by sex and age: Yes
Economically
active population by:
b) Sex and age
group: Yes
c) Industry: Yes
d) Occupation or
function: Yes
e) Status in
employment: Yes
f) Highest
educational level: Yes
g) Hours of work:
Yes
h) Other
characteristics: Yes
Re. a): Age was
defined in terms of age at last birthday.
Re. f): Highest grade passed at school
and, for some levels, educational background.
Re. g): Total number of hours worked
during the reference week, i.e., the week before the census, by the active
population.
Re. h): Labour income earned per week,
fortnight, month or year; the monthly income was calculated during processing.
a) Economically active population: Persons aged 12 years and over
who, during the reference week, were either employed or unemployed, according
to the definitions given below.
b) Employment: Considered as “employed” are persons aged
12 years or over who answered “yes” to the questions on Activity status: “Last week, did the person in question work?; Did
he or she have a job but did not work?”. The employed population also includes
persons who answered “no” to the above questions, i.e., they did not consider
that they had worked, but in answer to the question on Verification of activity, they indicated that they had carried out
an economic activity during the reference week: “Last week ...did he or she
help out in a family business?; Sell any products?; Make a product to sell?;
Help in the fields or with livestock rearing?; Carry out any other type of
activity in exchange for payment?”. (In the census database it is possible to
identify persons who initially declared themselves to be unemployed or inactive
– such as students, people engaged in household chores, retired persons, etc.
–who were later “recovered” as employed persons.).
Considered as “employed” are all persons
aged 12 years or over who were engaged in some sort of economic activity for at
least one hour during the reference week.
The following categories are included:
i)
Persons working without pay in a family business;
ii)
Persons producing basic goods for own consumption;
iii)
Employed persons who are temporarily absent from work;
iv)
Seasonal or occasional workers who worked during the reference week;
v)
Members of the armed forces.
Persons in category (i) can be identified
separately under the question on Status
in employment by choosing Unpaid
worker in the family business or on family land; persons in category (iii)
can be identified using code 20 in the database, as this corresponds to the
answer “Had a job but was not at work”; the number of persons in the other
categories can be estimated on the basis of their main occupation, although the
resulting data will be approximate.
a) Industry: To determine industry, the questions used were:
“Where did [name] work last week? (For example, in the fields, a factory, a
workshop)” and “What is the activity of the business, enterprise or workplace
where he or she worked? (For example, growing corn, making furniture, selling
clothing)”. The classification used to code the data on this variable was a
version of the North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) for the
Population and Housing Census, which identifies 20 sectors of activity at its
first level of aggregation and 119 subsectors of activity at its second level
of aggregation.
b) Occupation: To determine
occupational group, the questions used were: “What was [name] doing at work
last week?” and “ What is the title of his or her job, function or post?” The
classification used to identify this variable is the Mexican Classification of
Occupations (CMO). The CMO has three levels of aggregation and has 19 major
groups, 135 subgroups and 461 unit groups (unit groups contain about 9,600 occupations,
which are identified using the same code as the unit group in which they are
classified).
c) Status in employment : To determine status in employment, the
active population was asked to indicate their status in their main occupation,
i.e., employee or worker; casual labourer or unskilled worker; employer;
self-employed worker; unpaid worker in the family business or on family land.
d) Level of education: To determine the level of
education of the population aged five years and above, questions were asked
about Schooling, Educational background
and Field of specialization. Under Schooling, information was collected on
the last academic year or grade passed in the levels of the National Education
System (or equivalent in the case of studies abroad). The levels are:
pre-school or kindergarten; primary; secondary; prevocational or higher
secondary education; teacher training; technical or commercial training;
vocational and masters’ degree or doctorate. The information provided under
Educational background determines the studies which had to be undertaken by a
person to gain access to technical or commercial training, basic or advanced
teacher training or vocational training, and could be primary, secondary or
prevocational. The information on Schooling
and Educational background determines
the academic level of the studies undertaken by the population. The question Field of specialization applies to those
who indicate that they have attained a certain level in teacher training,
technical or commercial training, vocational training or masters’ degree or
doctorate studies. The classification used to code this information was the
“System of Coding Fields of Specialization” of the 2000 Population and Housing
Census. The information obtained on the population’s educational levels and
fields of specialization are comparable to those of the 1997 International
Standard Classification of Education (ISCED 97).
-
The size of the economically active and inactive populations was determined
essentially in the same way as for the 1990 census. Nevertheless, there is
recognition that it is difficult, by means of a single question, to obtain data
on those persons in the economically active population that do not consider
their economic activity as work and are more inclined to describe themselves as
inactive rather than active, because, in the majority of cases, the jobs
involved are not formal. For this reason, in 2000, the question on Verification of activity was included.
-
To classify the answers on Industry,
the 2000 census used a classification that was different from that used in the
previous census. In 1990, the Standard Industrial Classification System (SIC)
was used, while the latest census used the North American Industry
Classification System (NAICS) (household version); consequently, the results by
sector of activity were modified slightly. In order to solve this problem, the
published version of the results included a table by sector of activity under
the SIC classification and the remainder of the document uses the new
classification.
-
A different methodology was used to conduct the 2000 census compared with the
previous census. Drawing from the experience gained in the 1995 count, two
types of questionnaire were used, a basic one and a more detailed one; the
detailed one was applied to a probability sample of just over 2 million
households and the basic one was applied to the remaining households. The
detailed questionnaire contained the same questions on the economic
characteristics of the population aged 12 years or over as the basic
questionnaire, but also included two additional questions (Employment benefits and Place
of work), to gain more in-depth information, in addition to a question (Other income) that applied to everyone
in this age group, regardless of whether they were economically active, to
determine sources of income other than work.
The national results were published in May
2001, as were the results from each of the country’s 32 federal entities.
The publication containing the national
results is entitled “Tabulados Básicos. Estados Unidos Mexicanos. XII Censo General de Población y Vivienda, 2000”
(Basic tables. United States of Mexico. 12th General Population and Housing Census, 2000).
The organization responsible for the
publication is the National Institute of Statistics, Geography and Informatics
(INEGI), Prolongación Héroe de Nacozari No. 2301 Sur, Fracc. Jardines del
Parque, C.P. 20270, Aguascalientes, Ags.
The national
census results, as well as the results corresponding to the federal entities
and the database with the census sample, are also available on compact disk.