19.06.2018 Government Passed Statisticians’ Proposal for the Census. The Census Questionnaire Will Contain a Half of Queries

19 June 2018

The Government of the Czech Republic has death with the next population and housing census today. The Government approved a proposal submitted by the Czech Statistical Office. This time it will be the first census when people will be able to be counted in the census without being in contact with anyone. The statisticians have reduced the number of queries in forms in a significant manner.

“The Czech Statistical Office produced to the Government a proposal of a modern census, which shall be based on data available in registers of government institutions as much as possible. We, first of all, have concentrated on making the hassle to citizens as small as possible and thus we reduced the extent of questionnaires and number of queries dramatically. We also want as much as possible people are counted in the census on-line, which shall be the most convenient way to do so,” explains Mr Marek Rojíček, President of the Czech Statistical Office.

Citizens, who will get counted in the census by means of the Internet, will not be addressed by any person working on the project. Much more people shall enter the census using this way than in the last census in 2011. Filling in an on-line form shall be much easier than working with a paper-based form. The Internet interface shall include menus offering possible answers or shall skip queries, which would be irrelevant for the particular respondent.

The Czech Statistical Office has also managed to reduce the number of queries being put to people. This time there will be mere 23 queries, while in 2011 queries contained 47 items. Queries that were dismissed are, for instance, on marital status, citizenship, or on status in employment.

Besides, the form on houses was completely cancelled. These data the Czech Statistical Office will take over from registers. “Because we will acquire numerous data from the existing registers and databases of ministries and other authorities, the census forms will retain just the data, which our Office may not get from other sources. These are, for instance, queries on location of the workplace or on the way of commuting to work. These data are inevitable for public transport planning, for example. Other data are important for establishing kindergartens or for fire brigades,” confirms Mr Robert Šanda, Director of the Population Statistics Department of the Czech Statistical Office.

Today, a bill on the census was submitted to the Government for the second time. The modified version reflects the Government requirement of May, the decision directly states that one part of the census – surveys in the field being concrete – shall be carried out by the Czech Post (Česká pošta). The surveys in the field, however, will be relevant only for people who will not count in the census on-line within the first phase thereof. The Czech Statistical Office shall submit the articulated bill by June 2019.

Contact
Petra Báčová
Spokeswoman of the Czech Statistical Office
T 274 052 017 | M 778 727 232
E petra.bacova@czso.cz | Twitter @statistickyurad