Principles and Recommendations
for Population and Housing
Censuses: Major changes
Regional Workshop on the 2010 World Programme on Population and Housing Censuses:
International standards, contemporary technologies for census mapping and data processing
Minsk, Belarus, 8-12 December 2008
2010 World Census Programme

Endorsed by the United Nations Statistical Commission in
March 2005 and adopted by the United Nations Economic
and Social Council in July 2005

Three essential goals of Programme:
• for Member States to carry out a population and housing
census during the period 2005-2014 and to disseminate
census results in a timely manner
• to agree on a set of acceptable international principles
and recommendations governing the conduct of a census
• to facilitate countries in conducting censuses
Regional Workshop on the 2010 World Programme on Population and Housing Censuses:
International standards, contemporary technologies for census mapping and data processing
Minsk, Belarus, 8-12 December 2008
Revision of the Principles and Recommendations
 Principles and Recommendations for Population and
Housing Censuses, Rev. 2 adopted by the United Nations
Statistical Commission in March 2007
 English version published and available on UNSD website
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/sources
census/default.aspx
 Translation into the other 5 UN official langages
underway
Regional Workshop on the 2010 World Programme on Population and Housing Censuses:
International standards, contemporary technologies for census mapping and data processing
Minsk, Belarus, 8-12 December 2008
Principles and Recommendations
Main features of the review process
 Extensive international consultative process
 Gradual process through regional and
international consultations
• Meetings
• E-mail exchanges
• On-line discussion forum
Regional Workshop on the 2010 World Programme on Population and Housing Censuses:
International standards, contemporary technologies for census mapping and data processing
Minsk, Belarus, 8-12 December 2008
Principles and Recommendations - major changes
Orientation
 Emphasis on production of outputs for
evidence-based decision making
 Recognition of an integrated statistical system
for the production of outputs
 Non-prescription of data sources for outputs
Regional Workshop on the 2010 World Programme on Population and Housing Censuses:
International standards, contemporary technologies for census mapping and data processing
Minsk, Belarus, 8-12 December 2008
Outputs/tabulations
 Basic/essential tabulations
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
Top priority
Providing minimum statistics for countries in difficult circumstances
Population (20)
Housing (7)
 Recommended tabulations



Adequate for meeting essential data needs for evidence-based
planning, monitoring and implementation of national policies
Population (33)
Housing (19)
 Optimal tabulations

Meet the needs of most data users nationally and internationally
Regional Workshop on the 2010 World Programme on Population and Housing Censuses:
International standards, contemporary technologies for census mapping and data processing
Minsk, Belarus, 8-12 December 2008
Core topics
 Main variables for recommended tabulations
• Population - 31 core topics with 25 direct
and 6 derived
• Housing - 21 core topics
 Permit national and international comparability
of data by use of common concepts and
definitions
 Developed through international consultative
process
Regional Workshop on the 2010 World Programme on Population and Housing Censuses:
International standards, contemporary technologies for census mapping and data processing
Minsk, Belarus, 8-12 December 2008
Changes in core topics - Population
Non-core to core
 Date of birth of the last
child born alive
 Births in the past 12
months
 Household deaths in the
past 12 months
 Deaths among children born
in the past 12 months
 Country of birth
 Year or period of arrival
 Disability status
Core to non-core

Time worked
Alternate core topics


Place of previous residence
Place of residence at a
specified date in the past
Regional Workshop on the 2010 World Programme on Population and Housing Censuses:
International standards, contemporary technologies for census mapping and data processing
Minsk, Belarus, 8-12 December 2008
Changes in core topics – Housing
New core
 Fuel used for cooking
 Main source of drinking
water
 Information technology
and communication
devices in the household
Core to non-core
Year or period of
construction
 Useful floor space
 Rental and owner-occupied
housing costs
Separate core topics –
previously one
 Type of toilet
 Sewage disposal

Regional Workshop on the 2010 World Programme on Population and Housing Censuses:
International standards, contemporary technologies for census mapping and data processing
Minsk, Belarus, 8-12 December 2008
Principles and Recommendations - major changes

Introducing definition of Place of usual residence
(a) The place at which the person has lived continuously
for most of the last 12 months (that is, for at least six
months and one day), not including temporary
absences for holidays or work assignments, or intends
to live for at least six months; OR
(b) The place at which the person has lived continuously
for at least the last 12 months, not including
temporary absences for holidays or work assignments,
or intends to live for at least 12 months.

Impact on regional and international data comparability
Regional Workshop on the 2010 World Programme on Population and Housing Censuses:
International standards, contemporary technologies for census mapping and data processing
Minsk, Belarus, 8-12 December 2008
Principles and Recommendations - major changes
New classification of living quarters:
 With clearer distinction between conventional and
non-conventional housing units
 Enlarges the taxonomy of collective living quarters
Regional Workshop on the 2010 World Programme on Population and Housing Censuses:
International standards, contemporary technologies for census mapping and data processing
Minsk, Belarus, 8-12 December 2008
Principles and Recommendations - major changes
Alternative approaches
 Introducing elaboration of alternative
approaches
•
•
•
Traditional census – most countries
Register based census
Rolling surveys (with national variants)
 UNSD website – national examples of
alternative approaches
Regional Workshop on the 2010 World Programme on Population and Housing Censuses:
International standards, contemporary technologies for census mapping and data processing
Minsk, Belarus, 8-12 December 2008
Concerns raised against traditional censuses
 Periodicity of data production
 Prohibitive costs
 Untimeliness of census results
 Under-coverage
 In some cases questionable data quality
 Inflexibility
Regional Workshop on the 2010 World Programme on Population and Housing Censuses:
International standards, contemporary technologies for census mapping and data processing
Minsk, Belarus, 8-12 December 2008
Principles and Recommendations – major changes
Contracting out
Funding for the census
Quality assurance (instead of quality control)
Enhanced section on census mapping including
on geo-coding and contemporary GIS
 Focus on hard to capture and enumerate
population groups
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
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•
•
Homeless
Indigenous populations
 Promotion of, and training on, use of data
Regional Workshop on the 2010 World Programme on Population and Housing Censuses:
International standards, contemporary technologies for census mapping and data processing
Minsk, Belarus, 8-12 December 2008
Concluding remarks
 Principles and Recommendations, Rev. 2:
• English version available in print form and on UNSD
website
•
Translation into all UN official languages underway
•
Accompanied by:
― set of handbooks
― technical reports
― web-based knowledge base
 Other activities of the 2010 World Programme
Regional Workshop on the 2010 World Programme on Population and Housing Censuses:
International standards, contemporary technologies for census mapping and data processing
Minsk, Belarus, 8-12 December 2008
Thank you
Regional Workshop on the 2010 World Programme on Population and Housing Censuses:
International standards, contemporary technologies for census mapping and data processing
Minsk, Belarus, 8-12 December 2008