How the COVID-19 pandemic affected the population and housing census around the world
The population and housing census, which took place in parallel around the world in the reference year 2020/2021, was marked by the COVID-19 pandemic. All countries preparing for the census faced complications that they had to deal with effectively and in a short time. Meeting bans, the high level of illness of the members of the implementation team or the need for rapid legislative changes were only part of the various problems that all countries had to overcome in order to implement the census successfully. Some countries even had to postpone the census beyond 2021.
How European countries coped with COVID-19 and the census
All census promoters were encountering various forms of restrictions. The national websites of the statistical offices list the shifts in terms and the reasons why the shift occurred within the census deadline. We can briefly assess that some countries were able to carry out the census with various minor or major complications within the scheduled time, others extended the time of the census and were also those who postponed it to 2022.
The Czech Republic, for example, carried out the census in the scheduled term. Countries such as Poland, extended the census time to September 2021, and Croatia and Greece similarly changed the census to 2021. Countries such as Bulgaria, Luxembourg and Portugal and other EU countries have also changed the originally scheduled census time and completed the census or will complete it this year. Germany, Ireland and Hungary postponed the census to 2022.
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland counted differently during the pandemic, according to the epidemic situation. The situation here was unique as the census in 2021 was conducted in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The census in Scotland was postponed to 2022.
Pandemic was also outside Europe
The USA extended the census time for a longer period, the US Virgin Islands suspended data collection from March to June 2020. Data collection continued in June 2020, after the improvement of the epidemic situation. Saudi Arabia and Algeria have also postponed the scheduled date from 2020 to 2021. Thailand, for example, postponed the census to 2022.
What were the countries fighting mostly with
The COVID-19 pandemic has complicated the census worldwide. All countries have struggled with restrictions on personal contacts, mobility restrictions and many of them with strict lockdowns. Italy, for example, experienced COVID-19 directly in the implementation team and had many sick co-workers. Almost all countries have increased census budgets to purchase protective equipment and equip the organizers with disinfectants.
How the Slovak Republic implemented the 2021 Census during the COVID-19
The 2021 Population and Housing Census in the Slovak Republic began in June 2020 with the housing census, which was carried out without the participation of the population. The beginning of the project was preceded by a preparation, which also included training. The trainings were originally planned in the classic full-time form, which had to be re-evaluated in a short time, and were replaced by online– e-learning trainings.
Since the pandemic still did not disappear in February 2021 and the ban on personal meetings and lockdowns still applied in the Slovak Republic, the National Council of the Slovak Republic proceeded to amend Act No. 223/2019 Coll. on the 2021 Population and Housing Census and on Amendments to Certain Acts, and decided that the scheduled date remains for the self-enumeration, though for the assisted census requiring field work, the date will be postponed. The pandemic situation in the SR began to improve at the end of April 2021, therefore the President of the Statistical Office of the SR issued a decision on 21 April 2021 to start post enumeration to provide assisted enumeration for the 2021 Census. In this sense, the assisted census was realized at the whole territory of the SR from 3 May to until 13 June 2021.
How the data collection during COVID-19 is assessed over time by the project manager of the census and the General Director of the Social Statistics and Demography Directorate of the Statistical Office of the SR, PhDr. Ľudmila Ivančíková, Ph.D.:
„The need to work very flexibly and seek new opportunities moved us forward in many areas. Retrospectively, but even during the project, we realized that a large part of the infrastructure can be used in the future not only for statistical surveys, but it can also be beneficial for other projects within state administration. We have learned to implement a large part of the agenda online and we get used to this form. The 2021 Census was a breakthrough in its fully electronic form, the use of administrative data sources and, of course, the fact that the individual processes had to take into account the COVID-19 pandemic. I can conclude on behalf of the whole implementation team that it was a really tough experience for everyone.“
Finally, we can state that the world census certainly marked the COVID-19 pandemic in many ways and certainly complicated it. On the other hand, the information technology started to be used more efficiently and there has also been a more intensive use of administrative data sources and other data sources than previously expected. This use has had a positive impact on data quality. Other methodological implications and the census process itself will certainly be reflected in the next census preparation.