International context

The general purpose of population censuses is to assess, as accurately as possible, the size and distribution of the population across the globe, in order to analyse trends and produce global forecasts. Currently, censuses are coordinated worldwide by the United Nations who has recommended that censuses should be conducted with a ten-year interval.

The basic principles of census methodology (timing, universality, uniformity) were defined by the International Statistical Institute a century and a half ago, but the methodological foundations are regularly revised and updated.

In this census round, the population and housing census will be fully register-based in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Slovenia and Sweden. Read more about the census in other countries.