Data quality-comparison between census and DSS outputs for Navrongo-Ghana

George Wak, Regional Institute for Population Studies (RIPS)
Stephen O. Kwankye, University of Ghana
Martin Bangha, INDEPTH Network
Abraham Oduro, Navrongo Health Research Centre

Most sources of demographic data in Africa have problems which affect data quality. The objective of this paper is to assess data quality by comparing demographic indicators of the Navrongo DSS with that of the population census for 2010. Data for this analysis come from the Navrongo DSS and 2010 Population and Housing Census of Ghana. The DSS data was generated as at 28th September 2010, the reference date for the census. T-test was used to check for any significant difference between the indicators of the two systems. The census recorded higher population but the age-sex distribution showed no significant differences between the two. Similarly, the death rates showed no difference between the two systems. The DSS had a better age reporting than the census. Given that the two systems are independent of each other, the closeness in the indicators lends credence to the reliability of data from both systems.