2010 Census Round: Implementation, Innovations, and Challenges

1. 2010 Round of Population and Housing Censuses - A Global Review - Rachid Bouhia bouhia@un.org (For Demographic Statistics Section)

2. Outline • National implementation of the 2010 census programme • New developments in the current round • Challenges faced in conducting censuses • The way forward: Decisions of the 43rd session of the UN Statistical Commission

3. 2010 World Programme on Population and Housing Censuses (2005-2014) • Launched by the UN Statistical Commission in 2005 • Three essential goals are: • to agree on international principles and recommendations to conduct a census • to urge Member States to carry out a population and housing census at least once in the period 2005-2014 • to disseminate the census results in a timely and effective manner

4. I. Progress in the implementation of 2010 round of censuses • Programme has been a great success, in terms of country participation. • Since the start of the 2010 round in 2005, 192 countries or areas have already carried out a census, and 36 more have scheduled by 2014. • Only 7 countries/areas have not yet scheduled a census during the current round.

5. Implementation of Census by Year • The peak of the round was 2011, in terms of number of censuses conducted. In 2011 alone, 63 countries had a census. • But, the biggest count of the population was in 2010.

6. Implementation of Census by Year and Region

7. II. Innovations in the 2010 Round Censuses • Countries are constantly improving or seeking to improve the efficiency in how they conduct a census and collect data through it. • The main innovations in the current round are: • 1) census methods to obtain data • 2) use of advanced technologies

8. 1) Census Methods • A large majority of countries in the world are still conducting a census in the traditional way, i.e. direct field enumeration through a face-to-face interview with a paper questionnaire. • The trend is to move away from a single mode and use additional or mixed modes of data collection. • - paper-based self-enumeration • - self-enumeration through the Internet • - telephone interview • - interview using PDAs, etc.

9. Mode of enumeration by region

10. 1) Census Methods • Many countries are investigating or using alternative sources of data for compiling key census statistics. • Use of existing registers and administrative records, through record-linking, has become increasingly common, especially in Europe. Will a register-based census become a feasible alternative to a traditional census? • More countries are using continuous or ad-hoc sample surveys to supplement census data. (ex, American Community Survey)

11. 2) Use of Modern Technology • A substantial number of countries have adopted advanced technologies in various phases of the census operation, or used existing technologies more innovatively to improve the timeliness and quality of census. • GIS (Geographic Information System) and Global Positioning System (GPI) are most widely used technologies. GIS: - to create cartographic basis for EAs - to monitor the operation of field enumeration - to disseminate census results with mapping tools - others

12. 2) Use of Modern Technology • For data collection, many countries have used hand-held digital devices, such as PDA, tablet computers, the Internet and CATI. Some countries managed to carry out a census without any census questionnaires. The trend of conducting a multi-mode census is likely to continue. • For data capture, many countries have taken an advantage of refined scanning technology (OMR, OCR or ICR), replacing manual data entry. • Census data have been disseminated by a wider variety of media, including CD-ROM/DVD, static web pages, on-line databases, and GIS web-based mapping tools.

13. 2) Use of Modern Technology • The use of modern technologies have enabled countries to release their census results faster than before. In particular, technologies for data capture and processing have drastically shortened the time it takes between data collection and dissemination. • It is likely that an introduction of such modern technologies has also improved data quality by reducing human error in data processing, and allowing easy internal consistency checks.

14. III. Challenges Faced in Conducting Censuses 1) Needs for technical expertise • Given rapid advancement of technology, the technical expertise and tools employed in the previous census tends to be quickly outdated. • While technological options have been enhanced, countries are not at the same level of technological development. Many developing countries have required assistance/intensive trainings to utilize new technologies, especially in the area of GIS. • Register-based censuses also requires innovative technological set-up for record-linking.

15. III. Challenges Faced in Conducting Censuses 2) Difficulties in reaching respondents • Lifestyle of people is changing rapidly: people have become more mobile, living alone, better controlled for security, making it difficult for census enumerators to reach the intended respondents. • Privacy concerns and the perception of governmental intrusion in peoples’ personal life by a census have resulted in declines in response rates.

16. III. Challenges Faced in Conducting Censuses 3) Rising budget or cost of census • Investments in modern technologies have increased the census budget significantly as an initial cost, while they may have led to long-term net savings. • Use of multiple languages and large publicity campaign also added to the cost. 4) Political and social instability • Still, in the 2010 round, several countries have to cancel or postpone census dates due to political or civil unrests.

17. IV. Decisions of the 43rd Session of UN Statistical Commission For countries • Called for the analysis of data quality. Especially, reiterated the importance of PES (Post Enumeration Surveys). For international community • Called for cost-benefit analyses of census operations. • Requested a comprehensive assessment of the experiences and challenges in the 2010 round of censuses by establishing an Expert Group. • Requested to revise the UN Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses for 2020 World Census Programme.

18. IV. Conclusions • The 2010 World Population and Housing Census Programme has been a great success, in terms of country participation. • The main innovations of the 2010 round of censuses are seen in the introduction of new census methods and the use of advanced technologies. • However, the 2010 round has been also challenged by, among others, demands for applying advanced technologies, growing privacy concerns, and rising cost of census operation. • No “one size fits all” approach for census. Exchanges of experiences in the 2010 round will help a country to have a informed choice for the 2020 round of census.

19. IV. Summary and conclusion (con'd) • There is increased use of GIS in different phases of the census operation. Internet-based self-enumeration are also on the rise. There are significant refinements in the data capturing technology. • The modes of census data dissemination have diversified, ranging from print, CD-Rom, database, to GIS tools.

20. Thank You !