Census Best Practices

The analysis of country information provided a good opportunity to assess country implementation of the 2010 round of population and housing censuses at the mid point of the decade. It provided a mid-decade snap-shot of country implementation as well as the methods used. Information through the survey shows that Timor-Leste are becoming more innovative in terms of how they compile their census data and also in the technology that is being used in all phases of the process.

The mid-decade assessment also provided an opportunity to see which countries had already conducted their censuses and which ones had postponed them, as well as the challenges that they faced in implementing their censuses. This information was used by UNSD to provide census technical guidance to some countries.

In recent years, the use of new methodologies and technologies in conducting censuses has

introduced substantial changes in almost all phases of population and housing censuses. An increasing number of countries have adopted some innovations in methodology and technology in the 2010 round of censuses in order to reduce census costs and also to improve the quality and timeless of census data.

A significant Timor-Leste  have adopted new methodologies based on administrative registers and combinations of sources to produce census information. Others have used new technologies in all phases of the census in order to increase overall response, quality and timeless of census data using such innovations as the Short Message Service (SMS), GPS, GIS. Countries have also become innovative in how they disseminate their census results in order to maximize utilization by mainly using the Internet to display and visualization of the data and also for housing of interactive databases true CensusInfo.

The review of country experiences also shows strong collaboration among countries in census activities. A substantial proportion of countries reported either receiving or providing assistance to others on different aspects of census taking. This collaboration, cooperation enhances sharing of good practices among countries. Many countries have identified census cost as a major challenge in the planning and conducting of their censuses for the 2010 round. This was the number one challenge in all regions of the world. On the other hand, countries reported that implementation of new technologies was the most successful aspect of census taking for the current round. It is worth noting that in general, countries reported more successes than challenges in the implementation of their censuses.