Experiences from census taking in the
Western Balkan countries (and Turkey)
2011 Census round
24 february 2012
Pieter Everaers
Eurostat
Resources, Governance of
the ESS, and international
Cooperation
Structure of the presentation
 Why is the census so important for these countries … and why is it
so challenging to have a good census realised?
 Some statistics describing these countries
 Civil society, EU membership prospects and state capacity
 International support and census monitoring
 Experiences on Census taking; country by country
 Overview of relevance, reliability and credibility of the census
 Again role of civil society, state capacity and EU membership
prospects
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The urgent need for good population statistics….
 No census since many years
 Huge population changes due to periods of war and uncertainty
 New countries with new institutional structures with strong links
between population numbers and distribution of financial resources
 Potential EU membership and EU and global obligations
 Economic developments to be based on sound statistics
 Setting up a sound statistical system, the census as a base for many
other statistics
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… in a very challenging environment
 Ethnic, religious, language and nationality diversity between but
more important also within the countries
 The problem of migration and refugees; place of usual residence,
diaspora
 State institutions weak or in early stages of development
 (Latent) regional and sub-regional conflicts
 The link between the population census and ‘agreements’ on local
and national government powers, resources, schools, language etc.
(statistics as part of politics)
 Weak (young) statistical offices, old structures, lack of expertise
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Ethnic and religious diversity (civil society)
 Some very young countries, no functioning social structures
 Old and new structures conflicting or cooperating
 Diversity of population groups, diaspora, huge reliance on
remittances
 Low trust in society in general
 Large numbers of people to reside outside the country
 Relatively poor population especially in rural areas
 Very specific population groups (Roma)
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EU membership
 Candidate and pre candidates members
 Schumann principle, sharing to increase wealth and well being
 Membership based on contributions and subsidies, funds based on
sound and harmonised statistics
 Acquis communautaire (and on statistics)
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Organisation of the government (state capacity)
 Governmental structures in development/under (re-)construction
 Statistical offices from old Yugoslavian system to modern
(independent) statistical offices
 Statistical law and law on census to be developed
 Census experience in the statistical office very limited, also financial
resources limited
 In some countries relatively low trust in government and statistics
(confidentiality problems)
 Many other priorities (energy, highways, etc) other than statistics
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The organisation of monitoring
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On explicit request or based on strong advise
Monitoring to steer support or to guarantee credibility
Via light peer reviews or large international monitoring operations
Concentrated on a specific element or all over the process
EU driven or with wide international support
With a political component or purely technical
 Five technical coordination meetings (sharing experiences and
knowledge)
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Situation and characteristics of census per
country: Croatia
 Traditional face to face, OCR
 September 2011, 4 weeks 1-31 Oktober
 14000 enumerators, budget 21 million, no international donors, per
capita 5.4 Euro
 Communication and outreach 2.2 %
 Questions on language and ethnicity, no real problems
 No big problems in the field and analysis, some unrest about total
costs
 No monitoring
 Successfully finished, consolidation of NSI position
13
Situation and characteristics of census per
country: Montenegro
 Traditional face to face, manual data entry
 31 of March 2011, 2 weeks
 3900 enumerators, budget 3.2 million, no international funding, per capita
5.1 Euro
 Communication and outreach, 3.0%
 Questions on ethnicity etc, problems but via campaigns reasonably solved,
some issues on the final results
 Some problems on language issues
 Light monitoring focused on building confidence and emphasis on
communication. High political commitment
 Successfully finished, strongly contributed to strengthen statistics
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Situation and characteristics of census per
country: Serbia
 Traditional face to face, OCR
 30 september 2011, 2 weeks 1-14 Oktober
 46000 enumenrators, 25 million, donors from EU, 3.4 Euro per
capita
 Communication and outreach 1.0 %
 Questions on ethnicity etc, no real problems
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Severe funding problems leading to delay
Boycott, non response in municipalities with Albanian population
International support but no monitoring
Successfully finished
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Situation and characteristics of census per
country: Albania
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Traditional face to face, OCR
30 september 2011, 4 weeks 1-31 oktober
12000 enumerators, 17 million Euro, several donors, 5.4 Euro per capita
Communication and outreach 3.5 %
Questions on religion in Greek dominated areas problematic, some strong
political interventions
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Problems with Greek minority
6 months delay because of late preparation census law
International support and consultancy/monitoring, coaching on key functions
Finally, successfully finished, good impact on statistical office
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Situation and characteristics of census per
country: Kosovo (under UNSCR 1244/99)
 Traditional face to face, manual data entry
 31 March 2011, 2 weeks in april but extended with one week
 5000 enumerators, 11.7 million, high financial international support, 5.0
Euro per capity
 Communication and outreach 9.0%
 Complex discussion on ethnicity and language, diaspora how to be
measured?
 6 years of international political and technical support and monitoring,
mainly technical and political, large observation operation,
 Boycott/non participation in Northern municipalities and some regions
 Large impact on the statistical office, strong foundation now of official
statistics in society
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Situation and characteristics of census per
country: former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
(fYRoM)
 Traditional face to face, OCR
 14000 enumerators, in teams from different population groups, final
costs not yet known, own state budget, costs per capita not known
 Planned 1 oktober, for three weeks
 Communication and outreach costs relatively low
 Very complex ethnic situation (relation to Ohcrid agreement)
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Situation and characteristics of census per
country: former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
(fYRoM)
 Ctd
 Light monitoring mainly on the level of communication and outreach and
political level
 First delayed for 6 months, than Census operation stopped after one week,
ethnic problems and communication problems in enumeration teams
 Complex census law, state census committee with operational powers.
 Strong political interference via State Census Commission
 Unclear how to go ahead, (decouple from Ohcrid agreement)
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Situation and characteristics of census per
country: Bosnia Herzegovina
 Planned spring 2013, census law only very recently adopted
 Traditional face to face
 Complex ethnic situation, diaspora and link to powers (Dayton
agreement)
 International monitoring foreseen, technical and political,
observation in the field
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Situation and characteristics of census per
country: Turkey
 Register based census supplemented with surveys
 Oktober 2011
 No problems known
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Overview of results (1) Relevance
 Huge relevance of statistics confirmed for all these countries
 Many very important outcomes (population lower than expected,
less urbanisation, education and employment data, links to the
agricultural census, etc)
 Strong impact on position of statistics in society and on expertise
and quality of the statistical office
 Apparently no large return of people living in diaspora, could lead to
an acceptance of the status quo in several countries.
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Overview of results (2) Reliability
 Positive results in Croatia, Albania, Montenegro, Serbia,
 Reliable for a part of the country in Kosovo (norther municipalities
not to be included)
 Interviews and processing in general done in a very satisfactory
manner
 However, in several countries place of usual residence unclear how
dealt with and how processed
 Unclear if parts of diaspora are included
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Overview of results (3) Monitoring and credibility
 Time consuming and relatively high costs operations in Kosovo and
expected Bosnia Herzegovina
 Instrument of light monitoring worked well in Montenegro, not in
fYRoM
 Main positive outcomes : Results are widely accepted and
Strengthening statistical office and trust in statistics
 Main negative outcome : Reliance on external support only
temporarely and relative large emphasis on only one project
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Civil society, State capacity and EU membership
 Mature civil society needed, social capital is an important
precondition, but clearly countries their own responsibility
 State capacity is essential, can be built up and (internationally)
supported in its development
 EU membership creates pre conditions on the state environment but
is not a sufficient objective to assure a good and successful census
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 Thank you
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The Western Balkan countries and Turkey
Cyprus
Overview of the census as a data collection
process
1
2
3
1. All persons in BiH + all Bosnians abroad
2. Enumerated population, present or absent
3. Total resident population of BiH
Experiences from census taking in the
Western Balkan countries (and Turkey)
2011 Census round
24 february 2012
Pieter Everaers
Eurostat
Resources, Governance of the ESS, and international Cooperation
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