Sex of person

Status

Sex of person was approved as a departmental standard on May 22, 2007.

Definition

Sex refers to whether the person is male or female.

Person refers to an individual and is the unit of analysis for most social statistics programmes.

Conformity to relevant internationally recognized standards

This standard conforms to the recommendations for censuses contained in the United Nations’ "Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses", Revision 2, 2008. The Principles refer to sex as "male or female", in accord with both the definition and the categories set out in this standard.

The Conference of European Statisticians Recommendations for the 2010 Censuses of Population and Housing stresses the importance of collecting data on sex but does not define it.

Classification(s)

• Classification of sex