This guide provides users of the National Household Education Survey (NHES) data with suggested techniques for working with the data files. Special attention is paid to topics that will help users avoid the most commonly made mistakes in working with NHES data. The guide is meant to be an introduction and an overview, and not a substitute for the separate user's manuals and other reports. The NHES is a data collection system of the National Center for Education Statistics that provides descriptive data on the educational activities of the U.S. population and offers policymakers, researchers, and educators a variety of statistics on the condition of education in the United States. The primary purpose of the NHES is to collect repeated measurements of the same phenomena at different points in time, but one-time surveys of topics of interest may be fielded. The NHES is a telephone survey of the noninstitutionalized civilian population of the United States, and households are selected using random digit dialing methods. The NHES has been conducted in 1991, 1993, 1995, and 1996. This guide contains the following sections: (1) introduction and overview; (2) brief descriptions of the separate NHES data files; (3) comparisons with other data sets; (4) familiarization with the data and descriptions of data collection and processing; (5) selecting variables for working data sets; (6) NHES design; (7) working with missing data; and (8) weights and estimation procedures. Appendixes contain commonly asked questions and answers, examples that illustrate points in the text, and a summary of weighting and sample variance estimation variables. (Contains 10 references.) (SLD)

The population and housing census is part of an integrated national statistical system, which may include other censuses (for example, agriculture), surveys, registers and administrative files. It provides, at regular intervals, the benchmark for population count at national and local levels. For small geographical areas or sub-populations, it may represent the only source of information for certain social, demographic and economic characteristics. For many countries the census also provides a solid framework to develop sampling frames. This publication represents one of the pillars for data collection on the number and characteristics of the population of a country.

The handbook is one of the outputs of the Asian Development Bank regional technical assistance on Improving Administrative Data Sources for the Monitoring of the Millennium Development Goals Indicators. It serves as a reference tool for data producers on improving administrative data sources for compiling the Millennium Development Goals and other indicators. Drawing from the experiences of the five case study countries included in the technical assistance, namely, Mongolia, Nepal, Palau, Sri Lanka, and Viet Nam, the handbook combines theoretical issues in using administrative data with the practical problems faced in their use and provides recommendations to help improve administrative data systems. It also provides information on alternative data sources for compiling the Millennium Development Goals and other indicators.

This guide to small area estimation aims to help users compile more reliable granular or disaggregated data in cost-effective ways. It explains small area estimation techniques with examples of how the easily accessible R analytical platform can be used to implement them, particularly to estimate indicators on poverty, employment, and health outcomes. The guide is intended for staff of national statistics offices and for other development practitioners. It aims to help them to develop and implement targeted socioeconomic policies to ensure that the vulnerable segments of societies are not left behind, and to monitor progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals.