5 important reminders for a safe census
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.
- When accessing the online census survey, make sure that it is on the website https://uuringud.stat.ee. Sometimes scammers try to copy website addresses, making them look very similar to the legitimate addresses. If you are still in doubt, enter the census questionnaire through the website www.census.ee. This address is easy to remember and you can also type it into Google search.
- Census takers do not ask you to give the details of your bank account or any pin codes, to make a transfer or identify yourself with an ID-card, Mobile-ID or Smart-ID. If someone does this, claiming to be a census taker, or you have any other doubts, call the customer support of Statistics Estonia (+372 625 9300) and refer to the name or ID-number of the interviewer to check whether he or she is in fact a census taker. In addition, you can look up an interviewer by name on the population census website under contacts.
- Most of the data collected during the population census are received from national registers and with the online survey. These are followed on a smaller scale by phone and face-to-face interviews with the people who live at the survey sample addresses and who have not responded to the online questionnaire. A census interviewer can be identified by proof of employment. In addition, they wear a colourful scarf and gloves with the census design.
- If you doubt whether the person at your door is a legitimate census interviewer, ask him or her to show you proof of employment. It should include a name and ID-number. You can also call the customer support of Statistics Estonia to check this information. If the interviewer refuses to show proof of employment, you can contact the police, as the person might be a scammer.
- If you have any other doubts, for example, that there is a fake census questionnaire on the internet, please contact the population census phone line (+372 625 9300) or the police at first opportunity. The Police and Border Guard Board are aware of the census and the web police are keeping an eye on it.
The e-census can be completed from 28 December 2021 to 22 January 2022. Next, during the period 1–28 February 2022, census interviewers will collect data from the people who are included in the random sample but who have for some reason not filled in the online questionnaire. Collected and analysed census data will be gradually published starting from June 2022.
The online questionnaire can be completed in the survey environment https://uuringud.stat.ee or through the website www.census.ee after authenticating oneself with an ID-card, Mobile-ID or Smart-ID. It takes around five minutes per person to fill in the questionnaire.