A/HRC/45/14 28. Countries vary in the relative and absolute numbers of older persons, and as regards whether older persons are more likely to be living in rural, urban or peri-urban areas, including informal settlements and areas with high numbers of refugees or displaced persons, and also as regards whether older persons are more likely to live within a family, alone, or in a retirement home. It speaks volumes that whereas the older population is growing everywhere, classic population censuses are not standard throughout the world and some countries simply do not gather any data on older persons. Moreover, where population censuses are conducted, older persons rarely constitute the focus of a separate thematic census report.11 29. The inclusion of older persons at the planning and design stage of data-collection programmes is indispensable. Where standard sample design fails to yield sufficient representation of older persons, alternate sampling and data-collection approaches have to be considered. 2. Accessibility 30. Another precondition for significant data-gathering is ensuring that older persons participate in public policy discussions about them. This, in turn, requires information on data-collection efforts and on whether and how such data can be accessed. To facilitate the accessibility of data on older persons, and analysis and interpretation of it, metadata (i.e. data describing the data) and paradata (i.e. data about the process by which the data was collected) need to be available and standardized, as relevant, across data collectors and data-collection instruments.12 This is essential in order to understand data limitations and identify potential biases before determining the informative value and representativeness of data sets. 31. Metadata and paradata may reveal the use of cut-off ages, sample sizes and coverage. They make it possible to determine, for instance, whether older persons in institutional care settings were part of the sample, whether unemployment figures included those who are retired, or whether care provisions covered both formal and informal care. Openly accessible information on the research design and the data-collection methodology, which includes the sources, methods and procedures used to produce official statistics, is therefore critical in order to evaluate the suitability and appropriateness of the data and, thus, to ensure accurate analysis and reading. 3. Meaningful and representative data 32. A central element for a human rights-based approach to data is its disaggregation. This allows then for an initial comparison and appraisal of older persons with other population groups and forms part of the human rights obligations of States.13 Disaggregated data is, for instance, crucial in order to provide information about the extent of possible inequality and discrimination, and constitutes a prerequisite for the design and formulation of targeted public policies. At the same time, the technical specifications used in designing how the data is to be collected, and the breakdown of the data, will assist in monitoring and measuring the impact of policies and normative action. 33. Typically, older persons are represented in statistics as a single age cohort of 55 plus, 60 plus or 65 plus. Such a large, indefinite age group does not provide statistical lucidity as regards variations in life-course experiences at different stages of old age. Also, it does not make it possible to expose patterns of inequality and discrimination, or underlying factors that lead to poverty, isolation and long-term unemployment. As a consequence, absence of age-disaggregated data impedes targeted policy planning and 11 12 13 8 HelpAge International, “Data mapping on ageing in Asia and the Pacific: analytical report” (2015). Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), “A human rightsbased approach to data: leaving no one behind in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” (2018), p. 7. Ibid.