Forum – Asking the age question in mail and online surveys

Benjamin Healey and Philip Gendall

Three versions of a question for establishing the age of respondents were tested in two surveys. All three questions had very low non-response rates; however, asking ‘How old are you?’ in a mail survey and ‘What age range are you in?’, together with a drop-down response menu, in an online survey produced significantly higher proportions of incorrectly reported ages.
  

Forum – Asking the age question in mail and online surveys

Philip Gendall and Benjamin HealeyMassey University, New Zealand

INTRODUCTION

Age is one of the most commonly asked questions in surveys, but even for such an apparently straightforward concept there are different ways of asking respondents for this information. Ideally, the question used should minimise item non-response and maximise accuracy. However, as Peterson (1984) discovered, a particular age question may achieve one of these objectives but not the other.

Peterson (1984) tested four different age questions in a telephone survey of 1,300 American registered voters...

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