Challenges Confronting
Census:
China’s experience
National Bureau of Statistics of China
New York, 24 February 2010
China’s Population in the World
China 1.34
billion
19%
81%
Decade before the 2010
Population Census
Profound changes in the economic and
social structure, and in government
administration, bringing about new
challenges.
New Challenges (I)
Difficulty in Counting Migrant Population
230 million
or 17%
Difficulty in Counting Migrants
• Increasing size, scope and frequency of
population migration
• Unstable residence of migrants making
survey more difficult
• Multi-residence
• Less communication with neighbors
New Challenges (II)
Difficulty in Obtaining Complete and
Accurate Information
• Lower cooperation from respondents
• Increasing awareness of privacy
• More refusal to cooperate with census
• Access to household more difficult
New Challenges (III)
Difficulty in Planning and Organization
• Involvement of, and coordination with local
governments and community groups
• Over 6.5 million enumerators (working for
40-60 days)
• Recruiting enumerators from public sectors more
difficult
• More to be recruited on payroll basis requiring
huge budget
New Challenges (IV)
Counting international migration
• Core topics suggested in UN Principles and
Recommendations
• China had no readily available registration,
nor past experiences in surveying residents
from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and
foreigners
Strategies and Measures taken
to meet the Challenges
Stronger Legal Basis
Regulations on Population Census
-Specifies objectives, principles and
methods
- Important to standardize the operation of
census taking and to ensure quality of
census results
-More emphasis on rights of respondents
-Stronger protection of privacy
Pilot Surveys prior to Census
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Migrant population (origin)
Migrant population (destination)
Housing and facilities
International migration
Census mapping
Inconsistency in residence and registration
Questionnaires and data capture
New Definition of Respondents
-Population present count approach
-information also collected for outgoing
migrants
-operationally easier for enumerators
-more information on migration
Census Questionnaire
Re-design of questionnaire:
-Combination of long form (10%) and
short form (90%)
-Short form：6 household items, 12
individual items
-Long form: 17 household items, 28
individual items
-Questionnaire on international migration
Data Collection
• Pre-census pilot surveys on selfenumeration indicated a low response rate,
even in urban areas
• Compilation of complete mailing list not
realistic
• Traditional household visit remained the
main method of enumeration
Use of GIS and IT Technology
• Image-based delimitation and mapping of
census areas
• New technology on intelligent Chinese
character reading to facilitate data capture
Intensive Publicity Program
• Identify most effective modality:
TV programs (62%)
traditional media (26.9%)
internet (26.8%)
posters and banners (25.8%)
radio programs (15.3%)
others (21.6 %)
Intensive Publicity Program
• Role of local government and community
groups in publicity
Publicity for General Public
• 660 million letters distributed to households
• 16 million census posters and slogan banners
• 24,000 outdoor advertisement billboards and
145,000 outdoor LED advertisement screens
• 1.45 million notice boards and blackboards at the
community level
• 84,000 TV news programs and 805,000 TV
advertisements
• 1.38 billion mobile phone messages
• 80,000 mobile publicity vehicles
Identify most effective modality
Publicity Targeted at Special
Population Groups
• Pamphlets distributed to rural migrant
workers during Chinese New Year festival
• Publicity teams from college students to
rural areas
• School lessons on census at primary and
secondary schools: message passed from
students to parents
• ……
Results of Census Awareness Survey
Do you know about
the census
Yes
No
Are you willing to
cooperate
Yes
Undecided
/not willing
Mid-September
68.8%
31.2%
94.5%
5.2%
Late October
83.3%
16.7%
95.7%
4.3%
Towards the 2020 Census
Exploring more respondent-friendly and cost
effective approaches
• Enumeration through internet
• Hand-held device for household visit
• More extensive use of administrative
register