Belstat's experience in conducting the 2019 combined census presented at the Expert Group Meeting on Population Censuses (New York)

The Expert Group Meeting on Population Censuses (hereinafter, the Meeting) was held in New York (United States of America) on 11-12 December under the auspices of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs and the United Nations Population Fund.

The Meeting brought together representatives of national statistical offices and international organisations. In the course of the work, the experts shared their experience in conducting population censuses, lessons learnt, and discussed approaches to the 4th Revision of the United Nations Principles and Recommendations on Population and Housing Censuses in the following areas:

• assessment of the completeness and quality of data from civil registration offices and population registers using census data;
• use of administrative records from civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) systems and other administrative sources for the production of census operations and census data;
• use of population censuses to measure human mobility including international migration, internal displacement and refugee stocks and flows.

The Republic of Belarus was represented in the Meeting by Ms Zhanna Vasilevskaya, Deputy Chairperson of Belstat. During the session "Leveraging administrative records for the purpose of a register-based Census", she shared the experience of conducting the combined population census in Belarus in 2019, the use of administrative data sources in the course of its preparation and census operations, as well as in the processing of the obtained information.

"The population census of the Republic of Belarus in 2019 was conducted by a combined method: the population survey was carried out in combination with data from administrative sources, primarily the population register and the register of addresses.

Twenty-two per cent of respondents enumerated themselves through the Internet, while seventy-six per cent completed the face-to-face interviews which were conducted using tablets. Information about two per cent of citizens who for one reason or another did not participate in the census was obtained from administrative sources.

In general, it should be noted that the past census demonstrated the feasibility of using modern technology in combination with administrative data sources for future censuses. This approach will not only allow for optimising the process of collecting and processing information, but also for improving its quality and reliability," resumed the Deputy Chairperson of Belstat.

The outcome of the Meeting was the elaboration of proposals for the revision of the UN Principles and Recommendations on Population and Housing Censuses.