Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Demographic data

According to a recent report by the National Center for Health Statistics, almost 1 out of 6 United States residents lives in a household without a landline. This has important implications for the way basic demographic data are collected, particularly for young adults (age 18-24). In an attempt to maintain data quality, some survey organizations are starting to add cell phone numbers to their call lists.

Not including cell-phone only households is not a problem if these households are similar to households with landlines, but this same study found for instance that binge drinking (having 5 or more drinks in an episode) was twice as common among the cell-phone only households.

Click on this picture to actually see it:


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