Census Operation Activities
Part I
United Nations Statistics Division
United Nations Workshop on Revision 3 of Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing
Censuses and Evaluation of Census Data, Amman 19 – 23 October 2014
Census Operations
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Census questionnaire: Content and design
Building census infrastructure
Mapping and geo-spatial data
Living quarters and household listing
Census test
Field enumeration
Data processing
Evaluation of the results
Dissemination and utilization
Archiving
Overall evaluation and documentation
United Nations Workshop on Revision 3 of Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing
Censuses and Evaluation of Census Data, Amman 19 – 23 October 2014
Census questionnaires: Content and design
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Basic principle is to meet users` needs and to make census
statistics as useful as possible,
Content of the census questionnaire should be determined
with the involvement of census data users from different
sectors such as governmental organisations, research
institutions, private sectors, the public, civil society and nongovernmental organizations
Consultation with all stakeholders needs to be balanced by
factors such as the response burden, respecting respondents’
privacy and other critical considerations such as costs
United Nations Workshop on Revision 3 of Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing
Censuses and Evaluation of Census Data, Amman 19 – 23 October 2014
Census questionnaires: Content and design
 The topics which will be covered in the census should be
selected taking into consideration:
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The priorities of national needs for small area statistics,
International recommendations,
Historical comparisons,
Suitability of topics for collecting reliable information
Resources available for the census
Census takers should evaluate the national needs in the light of
possible new topics and the needs for continuation of the topics
covered in the past
United Nations Workshop on Revision 3 of Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing
Censuses and Evaluation of Census Data, Amman 19 – 23 October 2014
Census questionnaires: Content and design
 The process of selection of census topics is also related
to the decision on:
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use a single census questionnaire for all respondents or
adopting a two questionnaires approach – short-form and
long-form
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A short-form questionnaire with basic questions and
enumerating all of population and a long-form questionnaire is
applied on a sample of population for collecting more detailed
information
United Nations Workshop on Revision 3 of Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing
Censuses and Evaluation of Census Data, Amman 19 – 23 October 2014
Census questionnaires: Content and design
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Questionnaire design
 The method(s) of enumeration and technology used for
data capture are main factors affecting the design of the
questionnaires
 Design of the questionnaire which will be used for the
face-to-face interview and self-enumeration will differ
 Design of paper-based and electronic questionnaires
will be different
 Design of the questionnaires which will be manually
captured or captured by optical system will be different
United Nations Workshop on Revision 3 of Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing
Censuses and Evaluation of Census Data, Amman 19 – 23 October 2014
Building census infrastructure
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This phase of the census is:
 a process of building and testing census infrastructure
referring all census operations – mapping, enumeration,
data processing (capturing, coding, editing, validation),
evaluation, dissemination and archiving
Census infrastructure has to be put in place long before the
data collection exercise itself as all of the components need to
be extensively tested in as real circumstances as possible
The process of building has to be completely finished before
the pilot census takes places and should be adjusted as a
result of the pilot census
United Nations Workshop on Revision 3 of Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing
Censuses and Evaluation of Census Data, Amman 19 – 23 October 2014
Mapping and geo-spatial data
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The census mapping programme should be developed at a very
early stage of census planning considering:
 available geographic resources
 requirements for new technologies and approaches
 available funds and the allocated time frame
 staff capacity needed for new approaches
 requirements for developing an ongoing geographic system
United Nations Workshop on Revision 3 of Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing
Censuses and Evaluation of Census Data, Amman 19 – 23 October 2014
Mapping and geo-spatial data
 Major technological advances include:
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hand-held computers,
global positioning systems (GPS),
geographic information systems (GIS) software
low-cost aerial and satellite imagery
Application of new technologies requires careful
and long term operational and managerial plans
based on a realistic assessment of costs and
human resources required
United Nations Workshop on Revision 3 of Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing
Censuses and Evaluation of Census Data, Amman 19 – 23 October 2014
The role of maps in the census
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Maps ensure coverage and facilitate census operations (preenumeration)
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Maps support data collection and can help supervise census
activities (during enumeration)
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Census geographers partition the national territory into small datacollection units showing enumeration areas
Maps can be used to evaluate the progress in enumeration
allowing supervisors to identify problem areas and implement
remedial action quickly
Maps make it easier to present, analyse and disseminate
census results (post-enumeration)
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Maps are an integral part of policy analysis in the public and
private sectors
United Nations Workshop on Revision 3 of Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing
Censuses and Evaluation of Census Data, Amman 19 – 23 October 2014
Living quarters and household listing
 A list of sets of living quarters and structures containing
living quarters or households is necessary for
enumeration especially in the absence of adequate and
updated maps
 This list is also useful for:
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estimating the number of enumerators and census materials
needed in an area,
estimating the time required for the enumeration
using as guide to monitor the completeness and quality of the
enumeration of the population in a given area
United Nations Workshop on Revision 3 of Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing
Censuses and Evaluation of Census Data, Amman 19 – 23 October 2014
Living quarters and household listing
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Listing of set of living quarters should have unique street
names and building number particularly for densely settled
places-multi-dwelling buildings
Where unique address system does not exist, numbering
immediately prior to the census would prove useful
Unique address for each dwellings is necessary:
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If self-enumeration, whereby questionnaires are sent to the
households by mail is used in enumeration
If population register is used
United Nations Workshop on Revision 3 of Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing
Censuses and Evaluation of Census Data, Amman 19 – 23 October 2014
Census tests
 The testing of census operations prior to the
enumeration is a of critical importance for all countries,
especially
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for countries without a long history of census taking and
for those in which fundamental changes in census methods
or use of new technologies are being considered
 Tests should be employed for all stages of the census,
including enumeration, processing, evaluation and
dissemination of results
United Nations Workshop on Revision 3 of Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing
Censuses and Evaluation of Census Data, Amman 19 – 23 October 2014
Census tests
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The first kind of tests carried out during census preparations
are questionnaire tests
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Separate test should be conducted to test new technologies
such as internet and handheld devices
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to test the suitability of intended census questions, including their formulation and the instructions provided, as well as the suitability of the
questionnaire design
to allow identifying problems linked to the data collection application, design
and architecture and data transfer system
Large scale test of all census procedures - called a “pilot
census should be conducted to thoroughly test the entire
census infrastructure
United Nations Workshop on Revision 3 of Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing
Censuses and Evaluation of Census Data, Amman 19 – 23 October 2014
Pilot census
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It should cover one or more sizeable administrative divisions,
EAs representative of less and most developed areas, to test
census organization and enumeration in the field and census
materials
It should include all ICT components related to the field work,
data transfer or entry and processing well ahead of the census
itself:
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testing of applications, systems and the equipment itself, as well as
the underlying circumstances - climate, or significant delays due to
inadequate quality of paper or unexpected problems in
programming activities
testing the efficiency of data entry rules, coding, editing and
tabulation applications
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It should be conducted one year before the enumeration to test
everything in the same conditions
United Nations Workshop on Revision 3 of Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing
Censuses and Evaluation of Census Data, Amman 19 – 23 October 2014
Field Enumeration
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The use of new technologies in conducting censuses has
introduced substantial changes in field enumeration
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Traditional method of enumerating population
 face-to-face interview can be applied in different ways:
 using a paper questionnaire
 handheld devices to automatically capture data during
enumeration,
 self-enumeration method also can be applied in different methods
 using a paper questionnaire
 using internet
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The use of technology during enumeration would
be main challenge for most countries in the next
round
United Nations Workshop on Revision 3 of Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing
Censuses and Evaluation of Census Data, Amman 19 – 23 October 2014
Field Enumeration
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Management and supervision
 Comprehensive and elaborate management system for
providing timely managerial advice to the field staff
 Hierarchical and geographically dispersed system for
building direct and effective communication mechanism
between the managers and the field staff
 The use of portable phones and accompanying
technologies, such as Short Message Service (SMS), for
example, increases significantly the communication
capabilities
United Nations Workshop on Revision 3 of Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing
Censuses and Evaluation of Census Data, Amman 19 – 23 October 2014
Field Enumeration
 Management Information System
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Management information system for the field operation should be
established to collect information needed for timely management
and supervision of field operations
 Information on the progress of enumeration of population
and housing units
 Information about logistics issue
Actual performance should be evaluated against the set targets
 Using historical data on population size and basic
characteristics from previous censuses and other sources
 Setting up targets- growth rate, sex ratio, proportion of
empty dwellings, average number of residents, response rate
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Significant deviation between the target and
observed value would indicate a problem
United Nations Workshop on Revision 3 of Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing
Censuses and Evaluation of Census Data, Amman 19 – 23 October 2014
Field Enumeration
 Use of technology
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Internet– self enumeration
Handheld or mobile devices-face to face enumeration,
communication, supervision
Geographical Information System to create digital maps on
GPS enabled handheld devices, as well as producing paper
maps
Contact centre or call center to support the field operations
Short Messages Service to share information with field
personnel and respondents and exchanging information
between the field staff and supervisors
United Nations Workshop on Revision 3 of Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing
Censuses and Evaluation of Census Data, Amman 19 – 23 October 2014
Data processing
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Steps of data processing depend on the technology used- in
general, the process covers the following steps:
Prepara
tion
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Data
capture
Editing/
Coding
Imputa
tion
Validati
on
Process
ing
control
Master
file
Tabulati
on
Outsourcing some of the predominantly IT-related operations
may be considered to bring immediate economic and quality
advantages to census operations
United Nations Workshop on Revision 3 of Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing
Censuses and Evaluation of Census Data, Amman 19 – 23 October 2014
Data processing
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Preparation :The most common procedure is to have the census
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Data capture: methods for data capture in a census-keyboard data
documents arrive in the processing centre in batches by enumeration
area -or enumerator in case of paper questionnaire
 If the census is conducted in a multi-mode approach, it will not be
possible to batch questionnaires by EA for processing
entry, (including collection by internet or using handheld or laptop
computers) and optical data capture (OMR, OCR, ICR)
 Use of Internet and handheld devices may significantly improve
the quality of captured data while optical data capture gives
opportunity of capturing data as it is in the questionnaire and
diminishing manual data capture errors
United Nations Workshop on Revision 3 of Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing
Censuses and Evaluation of Census Data, Amman 19 – 23 October 2014
Data processing
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Coding
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Pre-coded responses should be used in census questionnaires with
numerical or alphanumeric codes
Verbal responses replaced by a code by a dedicated computer
program for automatic coding or by a coder (possibly computerassisted)
Editing/Imputation
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A set of consistency rules and corrective measures should be
prepared
Decisions on method of imputation (static/deterministic or dynamic
or both methods) for correction of errors and assigning value to
the missing fields should be taken during the planning phase of
data processing
United Nations Workshop on Revision 3 of Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing
Censuses and Evaluation of Census Data, Amman 19 – 23 October 2014
Data processing
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Validation
 It is a process of checking consistency in data after
editing/imputation which may cause errors due to incorrect
application of editing and imputation programme
 To identify such consistent errors, it is necessary to review
some key aggregate tables for checking consistency among
variables and with expected values/distribution to identify
the unusual values
Processing control
 It is important to establish a computer-based processing
management and control system to check individual forms
or groups of forms for each EA or for other processing units
United Nations Workshop on Revision 3 of Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing
Censuses and Evaluation of Census Data, Amman 19 – 23 October 2014
Data processing
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Master file is consisting of clean data records for each person
and households are produced
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Tabulation plan should be prepared by subject- specialists
consultation with users of the census information –software
packages are widely used for producing census tables
United Nations Workshop on Revision 3 of Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing
Censuses and Evaluation of Census Data, Amman 19 – 23 October 2014
Evaluation of the results
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The main purpose of census evaluation is to provide users with
an acceptable level of accuracy and confidence when utilizing
the data, and to explain errors in the census result
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It is important to choose appropriate methods for evaluation
of the quality of data and an appropriate way of sending out
these messages to the right group of stakeholders
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This topic will be discussed in detail in the workshop
United Nations Workshop on Revision 3 of Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing
Censuses and Evaluation of Census Data, Amman 19 – 23 October 2014
Dissemination and utilization
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Key elements to develop a strategy for census data
dissemination:
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identifying the diverse categories of users and their data
need/uses through consultation
products to be developed
meta-data to aid in the interpretation of the results
confidentiality and privacy measures
assessing the required technologies to meet user needs
dissemination policy
available financial and human resources
United Nations Workshop on Revision 3 of Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing
Censuses and Evaluation of Census Data, Amman 19 – 23 October 2014
Dissemination and utilization
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Dissemination products and services:
 Census reports: basic, thematic/analytical,
methodological and administrative reports
 Databases: Micro-database, macro-database, databases
for indicators
 Geographical products: Basic maps, thematic maps, use
of GIS for detailed geo-referenced inventories and spatial
statistical analysis
 Interactive electronic outputs: Online database with
integrated searching, tabulating, graphing, mapping and
analysis capabilities
 Micro-data dissemination: Anonymized micro-data confidentiality of individual data is protected- for analytical
researches
United Nations Workshop on Revision 3 of Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing
Censuses and Evaluation of Census Data, Amman 19 – 23 October 2014
Dissemination and utilization
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Census data utilization
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Population and housing census is unique source of data for
planning, management and monitoring national development
programs- by providing comparable statistics for each
administrative units and localities
The fullest possible utilization of census results requires a
comprehensive and coordinated programme of analytical studies –
policy-oriented
Cross-cutting and emerging social issues depending on the
priorities, such as statistics on gender, statistics on children and
youth, statistics on older persons, statistics on persons with
disabilities
Development indicators should be produced to monitor the
progress of development goals- national and international
United Nations Workshop on Revision 3 of Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing
Censuses and Evaluation of Census Data, Amman 19 – 23 October 2014
Archiving
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Archiving a vast amount of census records requires an institutional
strategy based on three components:
 Organizational infrastructure: the arrangements that need to be
put in place within the national statistical office in such a manner to
ensure the efficiency of the archiving and eventual retrieval
process- a centralized unit, maintenance, secure storage and
release of individual records for anthropological studies
 Technological infrastructure: the actual technology used in the
archiving process for enabling successful retrieval of records
 Resources: for the necessary fund, it is important to adopt a
strategic, long-term approach, as the archiving, maintaining and
releasing would essentially consist a continuous activity as long as
censuses are part of the national statistical systems
United Nations Workshop on Revision 3 of Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing
Censuses and Evaluation of Census Data, Amman 19 – 23 October 2014
Overall evaluation and documentation
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Evaluation assesses the effectiveness of operations, systems and
processes and their likely impact on data quality
Assessments provide valuable information on strengths and
weaknesses of past operational procedures which should be carefully
reviewed prior to the development of the next census
Evaluation of processes of census operations becomes even more
warranted recently to assess how well new methodologies and
technologies have worked
Evaluation of the census operations should be documented to build
institutional memory for lessons learnt from the past census and also
to share this experience for those that want to adopt similar processes
for their future censuses
United Nations Workshop on Revision 3 of Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing
Censuses and Evaluation of Census Data, Amman 19 – 23 October 2014