By today, January 6, approximately 150,000 people have submitted answers to the Population and Housing Census e-questionnaire. Women have been considerably more active in filling in the questionnaire than men. The short questionnaire can be answered until January 22.

From today until 22 January 2022, the e-questionnaire for the Population and Housing Census is open. Everyone living in Estonia is welcome to respond to the e-census. Only people who are included in the survey sample may expect a phone call or visit from a census taker if they have not filled in the e-questionnaire.

The Estonian e-census starts tomorrow, December 28. All Estonian residents can participate in the census. To make sure that answering the census survey is as safe as possible, Liina Osila, project manager of the Population and Housing Census, goes over safety principles and shares useful tips.

At the end of the year, on 28 December, the Population and Housing Census, conducted every ten years, starts in Estonia. Everyone living in Estonia is invited to complete an online questionnaire for the census by 22 January 2022. In February, census takers will call or visit the people for whom filling in the questionnaire is mandatory.

The upcoming Population and Housing Census will be special, as Statistics Estonia will organise it mostly on the basis of register data. What else should we know about the Census?

Most Estonian residents intend to participate in the Population and Housing Census, which begins at the end of the year. 71% of them prefer completing the census questionnaire online, as revealed by a recent survey of Kantar Emor.

86% of Estonian people are willing to review and update their personal information in the population register and in the register of buildings before the population census begins at the end of this year. Still, only 16% of the population, on average, have logged into these registers over the last year, as revealed by the survey carried out by Kantar Emor.

The big Estonian population e-census, which begins at the end of the year, is largely based on register data. For reliable census results, all Estonian residents are invited in the next few months to check and, if necessary, correct population register data concerning their education, ethnicity, place of residence and contacts.

In three months’ time, on 28 December, the big Estonian e-census will be launched. During the census, all people and their dwellings are counted. In order to do that and simplify the census, all data in registers must be gathered. Although most of this work can be done automatically, it does not yet work with a push of a button, instead everyone needs to contribute.

There are just a few months left until the census and preparations are in full swing. Many people want to know when and how the census will be conducted as well as when the census results will be published.

The population census is the biggest data collection and consolidation project everywhere in Europe over this and the following year. This time, let’s take a look at England where some clever scammers tried to take advantage of the census. There is a valuable lesson to learn from this.

There is not much time left until the beginning of the big Population and Housing e Census. What makes this census special is that Statistics Estonia is organising it mainly with data obtained from registers. What else should you know about the upcoming census?