Application of Information
Technology in the 2011
Population Census of
Macao, China
Government of Macao Special Administrative Region
Statistics and Census Service
2011 Population Census
Conducted in August 2011, for the
duration of 15 days
 13 work branches, distributed
geographically
 A total of around 240,000 building units
covered, in which 28,000 using long forms

Data collection

Short form:
 Paper-based
questionnaires, scanned and
recognized at each work branch
 Web-based e-questionnaire

Long form:
 Interactive
enumeration software system
Application of Information
Technology (IT)
CATI call centre
 OCR & marks recognition
 SMS
 E-questionnaire
 Tablet PC

E-questionnaire
Immediate validation
 Submission through SSL encryption
 9% of the building units using equestionnaire for data submission

Benefits: e-questionnaire
At the convenience of households
 No more time restriction
 Higher response rate
 Better data quality

Use of tablet PC
Feasibility study started in 2009
 Tablet PC processing power
 Wi-Fi reliability
 Battery life
 Data security

Tablet PC: hardware
Dual Core low power CPU
 10.1” touch screen
 Solid state storage drive
 Wi-Fi connectivity
 0.97kg weight
 Battery life is enough for a full work shift

Integration of the subsystems
IT equipment and network structure - Headquarter
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Primary database
server
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SMS dispatch
server
Web server for
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e-questionnaire
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DSEC LAN
Internet
CATI centre
Private network
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IT equipment and network structure - Branches
Application server
Storage
server
OCR
recognition
Private network
Wifi access
point
Uninterrupted
power supply
Tablet PC
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Color
printer
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Scanning
workstations
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Workstations
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Test data for demo purpose
Completed
Partially completed
Could not be contacted
Test data for demo purpose
Test data for demo purpose
Test data for demo purpose
Test data for demo purpose
Test data for demo purpose
Benefits: tablet PC





Improving data quality
Facilitating skip pattern of the questionnaire
Maps and photos of entrances
Tight integration with other subsystems to get
up-to-date information (e.g. appointments,
remarks)
More efficient work and progress monitoring
Challenges: tablet PC
Data security
 Battery life
 User interface

Data security

Data at rest
stored on the tablet PC storage media

Data in transit
during synchronization
Data at rest


Login password protection (OS and enumeration system)
Basic user privileges for census officers





Use of the enumeration software system
Data synchronization
File system level encryption of the local database files
Census officers do not have access to the decryption
key
USB flash drives disabled
Data in transit

From tablet PC to work branch
 Wi-Fi
802.11n WPA2
 IPsec/L2TP VPN using digital certificates

From work branch to HQ
 Private
network infrastructure
 IPsec VPN tunneling
User interface





Colour-coded questions
Appropriately distanced buttons for touch
operation
Touch friendly keyboard
Questions grouped in tabs instead of scrolling
Experience and feedback from pilot census
Data dissemination
Printed reports
 Digital reports
 Geographic Information System (GIS)

Future development

Possibility of full time connectivity
 Reduce
use of SMS
 Speed up notifications
 Two-way communications

Broader use of tablet PC
 In

other surveys
Devices of other form factors