CALCMC_MONTH is a 4-digit variable with no implied decimal places.
Description
CALCMC_MONTH reports the century month code (CMC) date for every month of the reproductive calendar for women of childbearing age. The earliest reported CMC date for a given sample is the same for all women in that sample, representing the century month code of January of the first year of the calendar. CALCMC_MONTH depends on the duration of the calendar for every woman, since women in a sample have reproductive calendars of different lengths depending on their date of interview.
Note that CALCMC_MONTH is listed for every woman in IPUMS DHS calendar data in descending order, so the most recent month appears first.
Century month codes (CMC) are calculated by multiplying by 12 the difference between the year of an event and 1900. The year 1900 was chosen as the reference period because all of the DHS-relevant events occurred during the twentieth or twenty-first century. The month of the event is added to the previous result.
CMC = (Year minus 1900) * 12 + Month
For example, the CMC for June 2002 is:
CMC = (2002 minus 1900) * 12 + 6 = 1230
In other words, 1,230 months have elapsed between January 1900 and June 2002.
Starting with CMC figures, one can calculate the month and year using the following formulas:
Year = int( ( CMC minus 1 )/12 ) + 1900
[int(x) is the integer part of x]
Month = CMC minus ( ( Year minus 1900 ) * 12 )
The information above is based on the "Online Guide to DHS Statistics," available from The DHS Program website.
Comparability — Index
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GENERAL |
Comparability
Apart from universe differences, CALCMC_MONTH is comparable across most samples, except that the number of century months varies across countries and years. For countries using calendars other than the Gregorian calendar, see country-specific comparability.
Comparability - Standard DHS
CALCMC_MONTH is a standard variable for women's samples that collected calendar data.
