Belarusian experience on population and migration statistics presented at UNECE meeting

The Meeting of the UNECE Group of Experts and Workshop on statistics on Population and Migration are held in Geneva (Swiss Confederation).

Participants discuss current solutions for conducting population censuses, developing migration statistics, using administrative data and new sources of information.



The Republic of Belarus is represented by Aliaksei Yarkavets, Deputy Chairperson of the National Statistical Committee of the Republic of Belarus and Irina Bichan, Head of the Demographic Statistics and Population Census Department.

The Belarusian side presented planned approaches to digitization of the statistical system, based on integration of data from various sources, improvement of methods of their processing and innovative solutions using artificial intelligence. One of the key areas is the development of a statistical population register as part of the digital infrastructure of the statistical system: “The task of a statistical register is to combine information about respondents into one system using a unique identifier,” explained Aliaksei Yarkavets. - It is envisaged to load information from administrative data on the economic and social status of the population, which characterizes fertility, mortality, migration, employment, education, change of family status.

In addition, Belarusian statisticians plan to use artificial intelligence to clean and normalize data, identify anomalies and contradictions: “At the same time, the use of de-identified mobile positioning data as an additional source for analysis of migration and actual spatial distribution of population is being considered,” added Deputy Chairperson of Belstat.



The presented approaches reflect the strategic goal of Belstat - to create a modern digital environment for data and statistical production. Participation of Belarusian statisticians in UNECE activities allows professional experience to be shared with the global community.