Standard Indicators (or the Lack of)

One problem that has kept popping up in our work is the lack of standardized statistical indicators. Sure, there's a lot of statistics flying about in the web, but trying to merge them to form one clear, cohesive picture is a chore.

"How's that?" you ask. Consider the definition of "youth". At the Y Factor, we have agreed to define the youth through an age range of 15 to 25 years old. However, studies have different ways of segmenting age ranges. One study may show a range of "below 15" while another displays ranges of 15-19 while using 10-24 in another. 

To complicate things further, even the government agencies have overlapping ways of defining the age range. The National Youth Council (NYC) defines the youth as 15 to 30 years old. In a young society like the Philippines, 30 years old seems to be too old to be considered young :)

This has bearing in estimating, for instance, the number of youth in the Philippines. If we define our youth as people ages 15-25, while various studies define theirs differently, then we need to make some smart extrapolations.