Emerging issues for the 2010
Round of Censuses in the ECE
Region
Angela Me
UNECE Statistics Division
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Background information on
the region
It covers Europe, North America, Central
Asia and Israel
In the last 50 years the UNECE has issued
Census Recommendations. In the
last decades, the Recommendations
have been jointly developed by UNECE
and Eurostat
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The Recommendations for the
2010 Round
The Work on the revision of the CES
Recommendations is carried out by several
thematic task forces coordinated by a
Steering Group
Issues presented here have been highlighted by
the experts in these groups
The suggestions for the “World
Recommendations” are ECE views
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The Recommendations for the
2010 Round
Based on suggestions from countries a new
draft of the Recommendations is in the
process of being finalized BUT there are
still pending issues
The draft will be discussed in December by
census experts from countries
The draft will be considered for adoption by the
CES in June 2006
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Emerging issues for the CES
Recommendations
New methodology section
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Revision of the essential census features
Description of different census methods
Integrity
Quality assurance
Evaluation
Dissemination
Consultation
Publicity campaign
New technology section
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Emerging issues for the CES
Recommendations
Migration
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New heading, definition of some population of interest
How to treat countries recently formed countries and countries
where the boarder have recently changed
Definition of Refugee population and Internally Displaced Population
(as derived topics) by the break of other countries Revision of the
essential census features
Definition of population
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To include refugees and asylum seekers
To include illegal immigrants
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Emerging issues for the CES
Recommendations
Usual residence
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One-year rule (with intention?)+most of daily night rest rule
Pending: how to treat students and particularly foreign students
Education
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Clarify the distinction between attendance and enrolment (difficult to
do for tertiary education)
To expand on literacy and mention functional literacy
Attainment as highest level
New concept of computer literacy
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Emerging issues for the CES
Recommendations
Economic characteristics
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Add text on the use of different sources and on the different results that may
be obtained from surveys and census
New topic on time-related underemployment
New topic on informal employment (non-core)
Clarify that “source of livelihood” can not be used to assess activity status
Families and Households
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Add same sex couples in classifications of legal and de facto marital status,
relationship to the reference person, and family
Add definition of homeless
Describe the different methods to construct the household: relationship to one
reference person, relationship matrix, partial matrix, and birth information
Pending: treatment of households with children and grandparents, without the
parents but with other members of the mid-generation
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Emerging issues for the CES
Recommendations
Ethno cultural characteristics
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Add text on the free declaration of ethnic affiliation
Pending: allow for multiple answers?
Commuting
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New heading including location of place of work-school, length of
journey, and mode of transport
Unpaid volunteer work
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New heading and improvement in the definition
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Emerging issues for the CES
Recommendations
Disability
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New topic
In line with the Washington Group and the European Health Module
The use of the census for screening
Agriculture
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New topic
Individual and household level topics with (?) preference to the individual level
Housing
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New framework with the concept of living arrangements
New concept: Overcrowding (to include floor space or number of rooms)
Add Accessibility to dwellings
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Definition of census
Output oriented definition
Census defined as the operation that produce
at regular intervals the official counting of
the population (benchmark) in the territory
of the country and its smallest geographical
sub-territories together with information on
a selected number of social and
demographic characteristics of this
population.
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Essential features (Draft)
Individual enumeration
Information on each enumerated person
and living quarter is obtained so that
their characteristics can be separately
recorded. This allows cross-classifying
the various characteristics and
obtaining data by more then one
characteristic.
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Essential features (Draft)
Specific reference period/ Simultaneity/
Unique reference period
Information obtained on individuals and living quarters in a
census should refer to a well-defined and unique
reference period. Ideally data on all individuals and
living quarters should be collected simultaneously.
However, if data are not collected simultaneously,
adjustment should be made so that the final data have
the same reference period
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Essential features (Draft)
Comprehensive results/ Comprehensiveness/
Universality/ Benchmark/ Full coverage
The population and housing census should provide
data on the total number of persons, households
and housing units within a precisely defined territory
of a country. The counting (or benchmarking) of the
population should include every person residing in
the defined territory of a country.
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Essential features (Draft)
Small-areas data
The census should produce data on the
number and characteristics of the population
and housing related to the smallest
geographic areas of the country consistent
with protecting individual confidentiality.
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Essential features (Draft)
Defined periodicity
The census should be taken at regular
intervals so that comparable information is
made available in a fixed sequence. It is
recommended that census data be produced
at least every ten years.
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Essential features (Draft)
Independent quality check
The data provided by the census on the
counting of the basic units should be
validated with an independent quality check
of the coverage.
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What could be relevant for the
“World Recommendations”? Migration
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What could be relevant for the
“World Recommendations”? Migration
To add topics on:
• country of birth of parents
• citizenship acquisition (now a para in the
topic on citizenship)
• ever resided abroad (to identify the
international migrants as defined by the UN
Recommendations on International Migration
Statistics)
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What could be relevant for the
“World Recommendations”? Migration
To specify how to treat migrants in
countries where there was a recent change in
the boarders
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What could be relevant for the
“World Recommendations”?
Ethno-cultural characteristics
To stress the free declaration of ethnicity
and the need to include “non-declared” as
one of the option
Debate if respondents should have the
option to declare more than one ethnic
affiliation
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What could be relevant for the
“World Recommendations”?
Total Population
To stress the inclusion of:
• refugees
• asylum seekers
• illegal immigrants
If they fulfil the criteria of de-jure or de facto
agreed in the census
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What could be relevant for the
“World Recommendations”?
Education
Emphasize the distinction between
attendance and enrolment
Mention the notion of functional literacy
Include the presence in the household of a
computer and internet connection
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What could be relevant for the
“World Recommendations”?
Employment
Add informal employment as a topic
recognizing the difficulties in collecting
information on this topic in a census
Add explanations on why different results
(particularly for unemployment) can be
obtained between LFS and census
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What could be relevant for the
“World Recommendations”?
Families and Households
To include co-habitant couples (including
same-sex couples) in the framework of
household/family composition and
relationship to the reference person
To mention the relationship matrix as a tool
to identify the household composition
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What could be relevant for the
“World Recommendations”?
General
To include issues related to:
• avoiding the non statistical use of the
census
• quality assurance
• clarify different methods to conduct a
census
• outsourcing
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