Creating Cohort to Measure Educational Inequality Trend

[Jesita Wida]

I have data on census year, age at census , and birth year. How to group individuals aged 25-30 in different periods of time on STATA. For example I want cohort 1 to be individuals aged 25-30 in year 1951-1960, cohort 2 to be individuals aged 25-30 in 1961-1970, and cohort 3 to be individuals aged 25-30 in 1971-1980. How do I do this on STATA?

[Clyde Schechter]

So, if a person is 26 years old in 1970, he or she will be 27 in 1971. Does this person belong in cohort 2 or cohort 3? Your problem is ill-posed.

[Jesita Wida]

Dear Clyde, if a person is 26 years old in 1970, they should belong in cohort 2 and not being included in cohort 3. Sorry if it is unclear.

[Clyde Schechter]

So, if a person meets the criteria for more than one of these cohorts, they are assigned to the lower numbered (chronologically earlier cohort).

gen byte cohort = 1 if inrange(birth_year, 1951-30, 1960-25)
replace cohort = 2 if inrange(birth_year, 1961-30, 1970-25) & missing(cohort)
replace cohort = 3 if inrange(birth_year, 1971-30, 1980-25) & missing(cohort)

[Jesita Wida]

Many thanks Clyde, I will try this and let you know!