How do I comment on or contribute to the Human Fertility Collection or to this FAQ section?
We are always happy to hear from users and we welcome submissions of any new data to the HFC. Please contact us.
Do I have to register in order to access the data; are there fees involved?
Registration is not required, and access to HFC data is free of charge.
What are the rules concerning copying, republication, and use of the HFC data?
You may use HFC data for your work, professional and other activities without any restrictions; you may also keep a copy of the data on your personal or work computer and data drives.
Any publication, published data output, table, graph, figure, or other illustration based on or derived from HFC data should acknowledge the HFC as the data source. Please refer to Citation Guidelines.
If you would like to republish parts of HFC data, you should first obtain written permission from us. Please contact us.
How can I obtain HFC data for multiple countries and years in one file?
To facilitate rapid downloads of large amounts of data, the HFC offers zipped files containing data for all the countries and years available. Please go to Data on the HFC Main Menu.
Where should I report suspected errors in HFC data?
Please contact us to report any possible errors. All comments, remarks, and suggestions are greatly appreciated by the HFC team.
How are aggregated age groups of ASFRs split into single-year age groups?
The calibrated spline (CS) estimator method developed by Schmertmann (2012) is used for this purpose (for details, please see the HFC Methods Protocol).
How are open age intervals split in data generally available by one-year age groups?
The piecewise cubic Hermite interpolation is applied to such cases. This method is also used in the HFD (for details, please see the HFD Methods protocol).