Abstract
The World Bank's household surveys and the surveys carried out under the ILO's Statistical Information and Monitoring Programme on Child Labour are among the main sources of the data currently used to study the nature and extent of child labour. This article looks at the relative strengths and weaknesses of these instruments on the basis of surveys conducted in Zambia in 1998 (by the World Bank) and in 1999 (by the ILO). The authors compare not only the survey questionnaires, but also the data they generated and the policy conclusions that could be drawn from an analysis of those data.