Segar. — Veracity of Census Returns. 



83 



There is another way of approaching the problem. The 

 census tables, giving the numbers recorded at each age, may 

 be adjusted by distributing the total numbers in certain 

 groups of ages over the single years according to actuarial 

 laws and methods. This has been done by the Actuary of 

 the Government Life Insurance Department for the last two 

 censuses, and the results are recorded, not in the ordinary 

 census volumes, but in the reports of the Registrar-General 

 on the same. Table III., following, takes for both censuses 

 these adjusted numbers, compares with them the recorded 

 numbers, and presents the excess as a percentage, the ages 

 considered being from 20 to 75, at which latter age the tables 

 of the Government Actuary cease. 



Table III. — Veracity op Census Returns of Age. 



As was to be expected, the percentages of excess in this 

 table are smaller than in Table II. They give a reasonably 

 accurate estimate of the proportions of the returns, at the 

 several ages considered, that are erroneous. Comparing the 

 results for the two censuses, we get the same general result 

 as before ; in every case but two there is a reduction, and 

 generally this reduction is considerable. The two exceptions 

 consist of the age of 20 — and in this case the percentages of 

 excess are small in both censuses — and the age of 50 — and in 

 this case, although the percentage of excess is large in both 

 census years, the increase in the later year is very small. 



Thus the fact is conclusively established that in the recent 

 census there was a much greater approach to truth in the 



