Census 2021 round (cens_21)

1.1. Contact organisation

INE (National Statistics Institute)-Spain

1.2. Contact organisation unit

Census Area

Population Statistics Directorate

1.3. Contact name

Confidential because of GDPR

1.4. Contact person function

Confidential because of GDPR

1.5. Contact mail address

Instituto Nacional de Estadística

Avenida de Manoteras 50-52 - 28050 Madrid

1.6. Contact email address

Confidential because of GDPR

1.7. Contact phone number

Confidential because of GDPR

1.8. Contact fax number

Confidential because of GDPR

2.1. Metadata last certified

22 July 2025

2.2. Metadata last posted

22 July 2025

2.3. Metadata last update

22 July 2025

3.1. Data description

The data present the results of the 2021 EU census on population and housing, following Regulation (EC) 763/2008; Regulation (EU) 2017/543; Regulation (EU) 2017/712 and Regulation (EU) 2017/881.

3.1.1. Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on census methodology

The Covid pandemic has not had any significant impact on the census, mainly because it is a census based entirely on administrative data, with no direct collection of information through surveys

3.2. Classification system

Classifications are defined and listed in the EU Implementing Regulation 2017/543 on population and housing censuses as regards the technical specifications of the topics and of their breakdowns.

The following classification systems should be used:

1. Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS 2021).
2. International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED-2011).
3. International standard classification of occupations (ISCO-08).
4. Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community (NACE Rev 2).

3.3. Coverage - sector

Not applicable.

3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions

The information is given separately for each census topic. See the sub-concepts 3.4.1 - 3.4.37.

3.4.1. Statistical concepts and definitions - Usual residence

‘Usual residence’ is the place where a person normally spends the daily period of rest, regardless of temporary absences for purposes of recreation, holidays, visits to friends and relatives, business, medical treatment or religious pilgrimage.

The following persons alone shall be considered to be usual residents of the geographical area in question:

1. those who have lived in their place of usual residence for a continuous period of at least 12 months before the reference date.
2. those who arrived in their place of usual residence during the 12 months before the reference date with the intention of staying there for at least one year.

Where the circumstances described in point (i) or (ii) cannot be established, ‘usual residence’ shall mean the place of registered residence.

The usual residence is determined using the Spanish population register „Padrón“: this register is composed of the entirety of municipal population registers (more than 8,000 municipalities), and the procedures to unify and synchronize them.

INE is the coordinating body – and has been for more than 25 years – of the “continuous Padrón” which includes the expiry procedures and periodic verification procedures designed to specifically update the residence of foreigners. 

Overall, all residents are obliged to register in the municipal population register where they live most of the year. This includes hard-to-reach population such as people without legal residence or those registered in non-conventional dwellings, including homeless people.

Registration in the municipal population register is required for the exercise of basic rights, such as health coverage, schooling or for the future acquisition of legal residence permits.

A statistical population register is built from the Padrón as a starting point, with the objective of providing a more precise count of the resident population. The process starting from the administrative count and ending with the statistical count is called "signs of life" or "signs of presence".

The signs of life process is applied to foreign residents (11,4% of the total population) and essentially consists of assessing the plausibility of each person's residence on the basis of their presence in other administrative registers, so that for each individual it is decided whether they are counted as a resident or not.

In the signs of presence method applied in the 2021 Census, registers on employment and education topics have been used.

Specific details of the signs of life process can be found on page 18 of the General Census Methodology.

Additionally, for specific groups such as centenarians, or children aged 0 and 1, processes are carried out to correct the occasional imperfections associated with the administrative management of the census

Annexes:
General Census Methodology

3.4.2. Statistical concepts and definitions - Sex

‘Sex’ refers to the biological and physiological characteristics that define men and women.

Male / female.

3.4.3. Statistical concepts and definitions - Age

The age reached in completed years at the reference date.

3.4.4. Statistical concepts and definitions - Marital status

Marital status is defined as the (legal) status of an individual in relation to the marriage laws (or customs) of the country (that is the de jure status).

Concerning opposite-sex and same-sex marriages, in Spain the law was modified in 2005, and allows same-sex marriages.

The minimum age for marriage in Spain is 16 years according to the last  reform of the Civil Code:

A small number of registrations have been reported with a marital status other than single and age below 15 years. This is because this is the marital status reported in a reliable official source such as the central register of foreigners managed by the Directorate General of Police under the Ministry of the Interior.

The marital status of some minors under 16 years of age is of national interest. Although the legal age is 16 years old, there are about 500 foreign minors who are "married",  “divorced”, “widowed” and “not stated” for under 15 years. The marital status of these exceptions is collected by the Central Registry of Foreigners, which is an administrative source managed by the General Directorate of the Police. These are therefore marriages recorded individually by the police. As this information is verified by the police, it is considered as a special case within the regulations.

 -It is possible both to divorce or to separate.

 Although in Spain there are registers of unmarried couples, both of the same sex and of different sexes, there is no state-wide law on unmarried couples; some autonomous communities have registers of unmarried couples and others do not.

The rights acquired may vary according to the Register in which you are registered.

The existing registers of unmarried partnerships are not always coordinated with each other so it cannot be ensured that they prevent persons to commit themselves into multiple partnerships with different partners. For this reason, persons in a registered partnership are not reported, only marriages.

3.4.5. Statistical concepts and definitions - Family status

 Private households are identified using the household-dwelling concept.

The household-dwelling concept considers all persons living in a housing unit to be members of the same household, such that there is one household per occupied housing unit.

The definition of household is based on the concept of cohabitation, not common consumption, i.e. the household in the census is the household-dwelling (not the household-budget) and all persons living in the same dwelling are members of the same household.
According to the definition of EU regulation " The family nucleus is defined in a narrow sense; that is as two or more persons who belong to the same household and who are related (...)". In particular, a sole person, or persons who are not related, do not conform a family nucleus. For example, when TPH=couple without children and SPH>2, there are other people in the household who do not form another family.
For further clarification on this point, consider TPH=CPL_NCH (couple without children) and SPH=3: a household consisting of 3 persons, one married couple and another unrelated adult. The sole unrelated adult does not conform, according to the definition from above, a family nucleus on his own. There is only one family nucleus in the household, and so TPH is not classified as FAM_GE2.

3.4.6. Statistical concepts and definitions - Household status

Private households are identified using the Household-dwelling concept

The household-dwelling concept considers all persons living in a housing unit to be members of the same household, such that there is one household per occupied housing unit.

3.4.7. Statistical concepts and definitions - Current activity status

‘Current activity status’ is the current relationship of a person to economic activity, based on a reference period of one week, which may be either a specified, recent, fixed, calendar week, or the last complete calendar week, or the last seven days prior to enumeration.

The national minimum age for economic activity in the country is 16 years old. As an exception to this rule, the participation of minors in public performances may be authorised by the labour authority in exceptional cases.

In the case of a person found in the registers of social security affiliates with several affiliations, priority is given to the number of days worked during the reference week; and in the case of a tie, priority is given to the full working day.

3.4.8. Statistical concepts and definitions - Occupation

Occupation refers to the type of work done in a job. ‘Type of work’ is described by the main tasks and duties of the work.

Persons are classified according to the occupation they had during their most recent employment. The categories included in the breakdown 'occupation' correspond to the major groups of the ISCO-08 (COM) classification.

Persons under the age of 15 years, as well as persons aged 15 or over that were:

• not economically active during the reference week, or
• unemployed, never worked before (i.e. they have never been employed in their lives).

are classified under 'not applicable'.

The allocation of a person within the breakdowns of the topics 'Occupation', 'Industry' and 'Status in employment' is based on the same job.

3.4.9. Statistical concepts and definitions - Industry

Industry (branch of economic activity) refers to the kind of production or activity of the establishment or similar unit in which the job of an employed person is located.

Persons doing more than one job shall be allocated an industry (branch of economic activity) based on their main job, which is to be identified according to the time spent on the job or (if not available) the income received.
The breakdown by industry is available for persons aged 15 or over that were:
— employed during the reference week, or
— unemployed during the reference week, but have ever been in employment
Persons are classified according to the industry they worked in during their most recent employment. The categories included in the breakdown 'industry' list the 21 sections of the NACE Rev. 2 classification and appropriate aggregates

3.4.10. Statistical concepts and definitions - Status in employment

An ‘employee’ is a person who works in a ‘paid employment’ job, that is a job where the explicit or implicit contract of employment gives the incumbent a basic remuneration, which is independent of the revenue of the unit for which he/ she works. An ‘employer’ is a person who, working on his or her own account or with a small number of partners, holds a ‘self- employment’ job and, in this capacity, on a continuous basis (including the reference week) has engaged one or more persons to work for him/her as ‘employees’.

3.4.11. Statistical concepts and definitions - Place of work

The location of the place of work is the geographical area in which a currently employed person is recorded as working. The recorded place of work, in some cases as in homeworking, will not coincide with the place where a currently employed person does his/her job. In those cases, the registered place of work is provided.

Also, the recorded place of work is within the Spanish territory. Administrative records such as workers' contracts and Social Security affiliation only contain information from the place of work within the national territory.

For a small number of employed persons, their place of work is not recorded.

3.4.12. Statistical concepts and definitions - Educational attainment

Educational attainment refers to the highest level successfully completed in the educational system of the country where the education was received. All education which is relevant to the completion of a level is taken into account even if this was provided outside schools and universities.

3.4.13. Statistical concepts and definitions - Size of the locality

A locality is defined as a distinct population cluster that is an area defined by population living in neighboring or contiguous buildings.

Such buildings may be either:
(a) form a continuous built-up area with a clearly recognizable street formation; or
(b) though not part of such a built-up area, comprise a group of buildings to which a locally recognized place name is uniquely attached; or
(c) though not meeting either of the above two criteria, constitute a group of buildings, none of which is separated from its nearest neighbor by more than 200 meters.

3.4.14. Statistical concepts and definitions - Place of birth

Mother's place of usual residence at the time of birth.

3.4.15. Statistical concepts and definitions - Country of citizenship

Citizenship is defined as the particular legal bond between an individual and his/her State, acquired by birth or naturalization, whether by declaration, option, marriage or other means according to the national legislation. A person with two or more citizenships is allocated to only one country of citizenship, to be determined in the following order of precedence:

1. reporting country

2. if the person does not have the citizenship of the reporting country: other EU Member State

3. if the person does not have the citizenship of another EU Member State: other country outside the European Union.

'EU Member State' means a country that is a member of the European Union on 1 January 2021. The list of countries in the breakdown 'Country of citizenship' shall only apply for statistical purposes.
For reporting countries that are EU Member States, the sub-category of the category 'citizenship not of reporting country, but other EU Member State' that refers to their Member State does not apply. For reporting countries that are not EU Member States, the category 'citizenship not of reporting country, but other EU Member State' shall be changed to 'citizenship of an EU Member State'.
Persons who are neither citizens of any country nor stateless and who have some but not all of the rights and duties associated with citizenship shall be classified under 'recognised non-citizens'.

3.4.16. Statistical concepts and definitions - Year of arrival in the country

The year of arrival is the calendar year in which a person most recently established usual residence in the country.

3.4.17. Statistical concepts and definitions - Residence one year before

The relationship between the current place of usual residence and the place of usual residence one year prior to the census.

For all persons that have changed their usual residence more than once within the year prior to the reference date, the previous place of usual residence is the last usual residence from which they moved to their current place of usual residence.

3.4.18. Statistical concepts and definitions - Housing arrangements

The topic ‘Housing arrangements’ covers the whole population and refers to the type of housing in which a person usually resides at the time of the census. This covers all persons who are usual residents in different types of living quarters, or who do not have a usual residence and stay temporarily in some type of living quarters, or who are roofless, sleeping rough or in emergency shelters, when the census is taken.

'Other housing units' are huts, cabins, shacks, shanties, caravans, houseboats, barns, mills, caves or any other shelter used for human habitation at the time of the census, irrespective if it was designed for human habitation.
'Collective living quarters' are premises which are designed for habitation by large groups of individuals or several households and which are used as the usual residence of at least one person at the time of the census.
'Occupied conventional dwellings', 'other housing units' and 'collective living quarters' together represent ‘living quarters'. Any 'living quarter' must be the usual residence of at least one person.

The sum of occupied conventional dwellings and other housing units represents 'housing units'.
The homeless (persons who are not usual residents in any living quarter category) can be persons living in the streets without a shelter that would fall within the scope of living quarters (primary homelessness) or persons moving frequently between temporary accommodation (secondary homelessness).

3.4.19. Statistical concepts and definitions - Type of family nucleus

 Private households are identified using the household-dwelling concept.

The household-dwelling concept considers all persons living in a housing unit to be members of the same household, such that there is one household per occupied housing unit.
The definition of household is based on the concept of cohabitation, not common consumption, i.e. the household in the census is the household-dwelling (not the household-budget) and all persons living in the same dwelling are members of the same household.
According to the definition of EU regulation " The family nucleus is defined in a narrow sense; that is as two or more persons who belong to the same household and who are related (...)". In particular, a sole person, or persons who are not related, do not conform a family nucleus. For example, when TPH=couple without children and SPH>2, there are other people in the household who do not form another family.
For further clarification on this point, consider TPH=CPL_NCH (couple without children) and SPH=3: a household consisting of 3 persons, one married couple and another unrelated adult. The sole unrelated adult does not conform, according to the definition from above, a family nucleus on his own. There is only one family nucleus in the household, and so TPH is not classified as FAM_GE2.

The term couple shall include married couples, couples in registered partnerships, and couples who live in a consensual union.
Registered partnerships are reported only by countries that have a legal framework regulating partnerships that:
(a) lead to legal conjugal obligations between two persons;
(b) are not marriages;
(c) prevent persons to commit themselves into multiple partnerships with different partners.
Two persons are considered to be partners in a 'consensual union' when they
— belong to the same household, and
— have a marriage-like relationship with each other, and
— are not married to or in a registered partnership with each other.

 

It must be noted that, although in Spain there are registers of unmarried couples, both of the same sex and of different sexes, there is no state-wide law on unmarried couples; some autonomous communities have registers of unmarried couples and others do not.

The rights acquired may vary according to the Register in which you are registered.

The existing registers of unmarried partnerships are not always coordinated with each other so it cannot be ensured that they prevent persons to commit themselves into multiple partnerships with different partners. For this reason, registered partnerships are not reported, only married couples and couples in consensual union.

3.4.20. Statistical concepts and definitions - Size of family nucleus

Private households are identified using the household-dwelling concept.
The household-dwelling concept considers all persons living in a housing unit to be members of the same household, such that there is one household per occupied housing unit.
The definition of household is based on the concept of cohabitation, not common consumption, i.e. the household in the census is the household-dwelling (not the household-budget) and all persons living in the same dwelling are members of the same household.
According to the definition of EU regulation " The family nucleus is defined in a narrow sense; that is as two or more persons who belong to the same household and who are related (...)". In particular, a sole person, or persons who are not related, do not conform a family nucleus. For example, when TPH=couple without children and SPH>2, there are other people in the household who do not form another family.
For further clarification on this point, consider TPH=CPL_NCH (couple without children) and SPH=3: a household consisting of 3 persons, one married couple and another unrelated adult. The sole unrelated adult does not conform, according to the definition from above, a family nucleus on his own. There is only one family nucleus in the household, and so TPH is not classified as FAM_GE2.

3.4.21. Statistical concepts and definitions - Type of private household

Private households are identified using the household-dwelling concept.
The household-dwelling concept considers all persons living in a housing unit to be members of the same household, such that there is one household per occupied housing unit.
The definition of household is based on the concept of cohabitation, not common consumption, i.e. the household in the census is the household-dwelling (not the household-budget) and all persons living in the same dwelling are members of the same household.
According to the definition of EU regulation " The family nucleus is defined in a narrow sense; that is as two or more persons who belong to the same household and who are related (...)". In particular, a sole person, or persons who are not related, do not conform a family nucleus. For example, when TPH=couple without children and SPH>2, there are other people in the household who do not form another family.
For further clarification on this point, consider TPH=CPL_NCH (couple without children) and SPH=3: a household consisting of 3 persons, one married couple and another unrelated adult. The sole unrelated adult does not conform, according to the definition from above, a family nucleus on his own. There is only one family nucleus in the household, and so TPH is not classified as FAM_GE2.

3.4.22. Statistical concepts and definitions - Size of private household

Private households are identified using the household-dwelling concept

The household-dwelling concept considers all persons living in a housing unit to be members of the same household, such that there is one household per occupied housing unit.

'Primary homeless persons' are persons living in the streets without a shelter that would fall within the scope of living quarters.

3.4.23. Statistical concepts and definitions - Tenure status of households

The topic ‘Tenure status of households’ refers to the arrangements under which a private household occupies all or part of a housing unit.

In the category "Households occupying all or part of a dwelling unit with another tenure status" includes situations such as dwellings given to their occupants free of charge or at a low price by another household or a company, situations where the occupant only has the usufruct of the dwelling.

3.4.24. Statistical concepts and definitions - Type of living quarter

In the population register, people are allowed and encouraged to register in all kinds of places, even if they are not conventional dwellings. That is, there are a small number of people registered in caravans, shacks, caves, tents, ....

“Registration in substandard housing and of people without an address: the Register must reflect the address where each resident of the municipality actually lives, and in the same way that registration is completely independent of legal-private disputes over the ownership of the dwelling, it is also independent of the physical, hygienic-sanitary or other circumstances that affect the address. Consequently, substandard dwellings (shacks, caravans, caves, etc. and even total absence of a roof) can and should be included as valid addresses in the census.

The most extreme situations may raise doubts as to whether or not they should be included in the municipal register. The criterion that should govern this decision is determined by the possibility or impossibility of sending a communication to the registered person at the address that appears in his or her registration. If it is reasonable to expect that the addressee will receive the communication, he/she should be registered at that address.

The correct application of this criterion determines, on the one hand, that any address where neighbours actually live should be accepted as an address, and, on the other hand, that a "fictitious address" can and should be used in cases where a homeless person habitually resides in the municipality and is known to the corresponding Social Services.”

A living quarter is housing which is the usual residence of one or more persons.

'Conventional dwellings' are structurally separate and independent premises at fixed locations which are designed for permanent human habitation and are, at the reference date, either used as a residence, or vacant, or reserved for seasonal or secondary use.
'Separate' means surrounded by walls and covered by a roof or ceiling so that one or more persons can isolate themselves. 'Independent' means having direct access from a street or a staircase, passage, gallery or grounds.
'Other housing units' are huts, cabins, shacks, shanties, caravans, houseboats, barns, mills, caves or any other shelter used for human habitation at the time of the census, irrespective if it was designed for human habitation.
'Collective living quarters' are premises which are designed for habitation by large groups of individuals or several households and which are used as the usual residence of at least one person at the time of the census.
'Occupied conventional dwellings', 'other housing units' and 'collective living quarters' together represent‘living quarters'. Any 'living quarter' must be the usual residence of at least one person.

3.4.25. Statistical concepts and definitions - Occupancy status

‘Occupied conventional dwellings’ are conventional dwellings which are the usual residence of one or more persons at the time of the census. ‘Unoccupied conventional dwellings’ are conventional dwellings which are not the usual residence of any person at the time of the census.

3.4.26. Statistical concepts and definitions - Type of ownership

‘Type of ownership’ refers to the ownership of the dwelling and not to that of the land on which the dwelling stands. It shows the tenure arrangements under which the dwelling is occupied.

'Owner-occupied dwellings' are those where at least one occupant of the dwelling owns parts or the whole of the dwelling. 'Cooperative ownership' refers to ownership within the framework of a housing cooperative.
'Rented dwellings' are those where at least one occupant pays a rent for the occupation of the dwelling, and where no occupant owns parts or the whole of the dwelling.

We did not collect any information about co-operative dwellings.

3.4.27. Statistical concepts and definitions - Number of occupants

The number of occupants of a housing unit is the number of people for whom the housing unit is the usual residence.

3.4.28. Statistical concepts and definitions - Useful floor space

The useful floor  space of the dwellings is provided.

No information is available on the number of rooms in dwellings.

Useful floor space is defined as the floor space measured inside the outer walls excluding non-habitable cellars and attics and, in multi-dwelling buildings, all common spaces; or the total floor space of rooms falling under the concept of 'room'.

3.4.29. Statistical concepts and definitions - Number of rooms

The useful floor  space of the dwellings is provided.

No information is available on the number of rooms in dwellings.

A ‘room’ is defined as a space in a housing unit enclosed by walls reaching from the floor to the ceiling or roof, of a size large enough to hold a bed for an adult (4 square meters at least) and at least 2 meters high over the major area of the ceiling.

3.4.30. Statistical concepts and definitions - Density standard (floor space)

The topic ‘Density standard (floor space)’ relates the useful floor space in square meters to the number of occupants, as specified under the topic ‘Number of occupants’.

3.4.31. Statistical concepts and definitions - Density standard (number of rooms)

The topic ‘Density standard (number of rooms)’ relates the number of rooms to the number of occupants, as specified under the topic ‘Number of occupants’.

The useful floor  space of the dwellings is provided.

No information is available on the number of rooms in dwellings.

3.4.32. Statistical concepts and definitions - Water supply system

Whether the conventional dwelling is equipped with piped water.

3.4.33. Statistical concepts and definitions - Toilet facilities

Whether the conventional dwelling is equipped with toilet facilities.

3.4.34. Statistical concepts and definitions - Bathing facilities

Whether the conventional dwelling is equipped with bathing facilities.

3.4.35. Statistical concepts and definitions - Type of heating

Conventional dwelling is considered as centrally heated if heating is provided either from a community heating centre or from an installation built in the building or in the conventional dwelling, established for heating purposes, without regard to the source of energy.

3.4.36. Statistical concepts and definitions - Type of building

The topic ‘Dwellings by type of building’ refers to the number of dwellings in the building in which the dwelling is placed.

3.4.37. Statistical concepts and definitions - Period of construction

Year of construction or total refurbishment of the building in which the dwelling is situated.

The topic ‘Dwellings by period of construction’ refers to the year when the building in which the dwelling is placed was completed.

3.5. Statistical unit

The EU programme for the 2021 population and housing censuses includes data on persons, private households, family nuclei, conventional dwellings and living quarters.

3.6. Statistical population

The persons enumerated in the 2021 census are those who were usually resident in Spain at the census reference date, 01 January 2021.

3.7. Reference area

Data are available at different levels of geographical detail: national, NUTS2/NUTS3 regions and local administrative units (LAU), grids.

3.8. Coverage - Time

Data refer to the situation at the census reference date, 01 January 2021.

3.9. Base period

Not applicable.

Counts of statistical units should be expressed in numbers and where is needed rate per inhabitants enumerated in the country.

Information is provided in the sub-concepts 5.1 - 5.3.

5.1. EU census reference date

1 January 2021

5.2. National census reference date

1 January 2021

5.3. Differences between reference dates of national and EU census publications

No differences.

6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements

National legal background for the population and housing censuses, as requested by Reg. 2017/881, Annex point 1.1.

The compilation and dissemination of the data are governed by the Statistical Law No. 12/1989 "Public Statistical Function" of May 9, 1989, and Law No. 4/1990 of June 29 on “National Budget of State for the year 1990" amended by Law No. 13/1996 "Fiscal, administrative and social measures" of December 30, 1996, makes compulsory all statistics included in the National Statistics Plan.

It contains the statistics that must be developed in the four year period by the State General Administration's services or any other entity dependent on it. All statistics included in the National Statistics Plan are statistics for state purposes and are obligatory. The National Statistics Plan 2021-2024, approved by Royal Decree 1110/2020, of 15 December, is the Plan currently implemented.

 These statistical operations has governmental purposes, and it is included in the National Statistics Plan 2021-2024.

The annual statistical programme 2021, developed by Royal Decree 150/2021 of 9 March, which approves the Annual Programme 2021 of the National Statistical Plan 2021-2024, specifically includes the development of the population and housing censuses 2021.

It contains the list of statistical operations that form part of the Annual Programme 2021, classified by sector or theme and by body responsible for their execution.For each of the statistical operations included in the Annual Programme 2021 it details the bodies involved in their compilation, the specific work to be carried out during the year and the participation of the different bodies in their execution.

  EU legal acts:

• REGULATION (EC) No 763/2008 on population and housing censuses

• COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING REGULATION (EU) 2017/881 implementing Regulation (EC) No 763/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council on population and housing censuses, as regards the modalities and structure of the quality reports and the technical format for data transmission, and amending Regulation (EU) No 1151/2010
• COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING REGULATION (EU) 2017/543 laying down rules for the application of Regulation (EC) No 763/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council on population and housing censuses as regards the technical specifications of the topics and of their breakdowns
•  COMMISSION REGULATION (EU) 2017/712 establishing the reference year and the programme of the statistical data and metadata for population and housing censuses provided for by Regulation (EC) No 763/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council

 

 

Annexes:
The National Statistics Plan 2021-2024, approved by Royal Decree 1110/2020, of 15 December
The annual statistical programme 2021, developed by Royal Decree 150/2021 of 9 March, which approves the Annual Programme 2021 of the National Statistical Plan 2021-2024, specifically includes the development of the population and housing censuses 2021

6.1.1. Bodies responsible

INE (National Statistics Institute)-Spain

6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing

The exchanges of information needed to elaborate statistics between the INE and the rest of the State statistical offices (Ministerial Departments, independent bodies and administrative bodies depending on the State General Administration), or between these offices and the Autonomic statistical offices, are regulated in the LFEP (Law of the Public Statistic Function). This law also regulates the mechanisms of statistical coordination, and concludes cooperation agreements between the different offices when necessary.

7.1. Confidentiality - policy

Confidentiality - Regulation (EU) 2017/712 Art 4 and 5.

Law 12/1989, of May 9, 1989, on the Public Statistical Function obliges the INE not to disseminate under any circumstances personal data, regardless of their origin. It is understood that personal data are those referring to natural or legal persons that either allow the immediate identification of the interested parties, or lead, due to their structure, content or degree of disaggregation, to their indirect identification. On the other hand, Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2009 on European statistics establishes the need to establish common principles and guidelines to ensure the confidentiality of the data used to produce European statistics and access to these confidential data, taking into account technical progress and the needs of users in a democratic society.

Annexes:
Public Statistical Function Law. Chapter III (Articles from 13 to 19) on statistical confidentiality.

7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment

 In general,INE adopts the logical, physical and administrative measures necessary for the effective protection of confidential data, from data collection to publication.

In the information processing phases, data allowing direct identification are kept only as long as they are strictly necessary to guarantee the quality of the processes.

In the publication of the results tables, the detail of the information is analyzed to prevent confidential data from being deduced from the statistical units.

In cases where microdata files are disseminated, they are always anonymized.

On the other hand, the statistical personnel will have the obligation to preserve statistical secrecy (art. 17.1 of the LFEP).

 In the national publication on our website, the 2021 census dissemination has been carried out on the basis of a data warehouse type system, in which the user chooses the combination of variables and the geographical area more freely than in a closed system of predefined tables.

The user is offered the possibility to create tables. The user must first choose the group to be consulted, define the geographical area (national, Autonomous Community, provinces, municipalities, census sections) and choose the variables involved by means of a typical interactive procedure in which he/she composes the rows and columns of the table to be built.

In order to strike a balance between maximising the informative capacity of the census dissemination system and preserving confidentiality, certain methods and restrictions are used:

• Data swapping techniques.
• Constraints in the dissemination depending on the breakdown of the different topics, the amount of cells and a value (for each topic involved in the request) that represents how sensititive is the information disseminated
• In the microdata, small LAU2 municipalities have been recoded depending on their size.
• In the microdata, occupation and industry are only disseminated with 2-digits detail. Apart from that, some sensitive values (for example Forced Arms) have been agregated with others.
• Random rounding to multiples of 3. This means that all data, before being offered by the system, is subject to random rounding to the nearest multiple of three up or down. This makes the tables less additive but prevents the disclosure of single unit information. The rounding will be done randomly for each query. Therefore, the same cell may take different values in different queries.

In the hypercube data provided to Eurostat, the given recommendations have been followed, and the Post tabular method, the cell key method and the cell key method have been applied.

8.1. Release calendar

The advance release calendar that shows the precise release dates for the coming year is disseminated in the last quarter of each year.

The calendar that has been followed for the publication of the results of the Population and Housing Censuses of 2021 has been the following:

November 2022: Population figures , demographic, migratory, educational and labour information.

February 2023: remaining labour variables relating to the employed population such as branch of economic activity, occupation or place of work.

June 2023: Publication of complete census results for households and dwellings

December 2023: microdata for users.

8.2. Release calendar access

The calendar is disseminated on the INE's Internet website (Publications Calendar).

Annexes:
Publications Calendar

8.3. Release policy - user access

The data are released simultaneously according to the advance release calendar to all interested parties by issuing the press release. At the same time, the data are posted on the INE's Internet website almost immediately after the press release is issued. Also some predefined tailor-made requests are sent to registered users. Some users could receive partial information under embargo as it is publicly described in  this website.

Decennial.

Information is provided in the sub-concepts 10.1 - 10.7.

10.1. Dissemination format - News release

The results of the statistical operations are normally disseminated  by using press releases that can be accessed via both the corresponding menu and website, the Press Releases Section in the web.

The press releases published concerning the 2021 censuses:

• November 2022
• June 2023

Annexes:
Press release
Press release nov 22

10.2. Dissemination format - Publications

 In addition to the sets of tables disseminated on the INE website.

 A special issue dedicated to censuses has been published in the specialised statistics magazine.

Annexes:
A special issue dedicated to censuses has been published in the specialised statistics magazine

10.3. Dissemination format - online database

Predefined Tables (Excel, Pc-Axis...)

Customized table query system

Maps viewer

Web services that allow for the automated exploitation of the information to facilitate the reuse of census information in other applications.

10.4. Dissemination format - microdata access

 Microdata available both for:

• Persons and households
• Dwellings

File consisting of all persons contained in a sample of 10% of households.

In order to safeguard statistical secrecy, it has been necessary:

• recode in municipalities with less than 10 thousand inhabitants the geographical identification of the municipality of the place of residence, place of birth, place of origin, place of previous residence, place of residence 1 year ago, place of residence 10 years ago, place of work and place of study.
• provide the occupation and activity at 2 digits of CNO-11 and CNAE-09 respectively
• add persons with occupations related to the Armed Forces and State Security Corps in other categories.

 File comprised of a sample of 10% of family dwellings (independent of the sample of households), both main and non-main dwellings. Therefore, it does not include collective dwellings.

In order to safeguard statistical secrecy, it has been necessary to recode the variable Municipality of location of the dwelling in municipalities with less than 10,000 inhabitants.

10.5. Dissemination format - other

In addition to the information contained in the online publications and databases, the INE is able to provide data "to order" in accordance with users' requirements by means of the "User Services" where specialist staff will advise on the viability of the requirements.

10.6. Documentation on methodology

Information about methodology

Census project

Annexes:
Methodology
Census Project

10.7. Quality management - documentation

The link to the Spanish reference metadata.

11.1. Quality assurance

Quality assurance framework for the INE statistics is based on the ESSCoP, the European Statistics Code of Practice, made by EUROSTAT. The ESSCoP is made up of 15 principles, gathered in three areas: Institutional Environment, Processes and Products. Each principle is associated with some indicators which make possible to measure it. In order to evaluate quality, EUROSTAT provides different tools: the indicators mentioned above, Self-assessment based on the DESAP model, peer review, user satisfaction surveys and other proceedings for evaluation.

The preparatory work for the 2021 censuses began after the publication of the 2011 census, which has allowed successive "tests" to be completed over the years, in the form of pre-census files, which contribute to guaranteeing the quality of the process and the results.

Its implementation is based on making maximum use of the available administrative registers: broadly speaking, it can be said that data from the population register is integrated with administrative sources of a labour, education, tax, immigration nature... in such a way that, from the different registers, almost all the variables studied in the 2011 Census can be constructed.

Throughout these years, a detailed analysis has been made of the administrative sources available, the quality of their content and their suitability for the census objectives.  The conclusion reached is that much more information is available and of much higher quality than was expected at the beginning of the analysis, and that almost all of the information contained in the questionnaire used in the 2011 census sample can be constructed from administrative records. This already implies a first improvement in quality with respect to the 2011 census in terms of reducing costs and burden on respondents.

In order to approach the crosses of administrative registers, it has been previously verified that the vast majority of the files have quality identifiers that allow for the possibility of carrying out links between the different sources with a reliability percentage close to 100%.

Both in the 2016 pre-census file and in the subsequent file prepared with reference 2018, the vast majority of census variables have been constructed exclusively using administrative sources, and their results have been compared with those obtained in the main reference sources according to the subject matter of each variable, obtaining satisfactory results in all of them.

The minimum information requirements to be provided, determined by the EU Census Regulation, are more than met for all variables referring to population and dwellings. It may, however, be necessary to complete the information with statistical imputation procedures in certain cases, but to a much lesser extent than is used in classic censuses

11.2. Quality management - assessment

The questionnaire is difficult for many respondents to complete, leading to errors of all kinds or incomplete information.

Systematic difficulty in finding certain types of persons. For example, a part of the foreign population is always more difficult to census.

The register-based census becomes a transparent task for society. The census thus designed is also the embodiment of the effort not to bother citizens with information that the Administration already has, although it is not at all easy to deal with in many cases due to technical difficulties of all kinds.

Finally, among the advantages provided by this strategy is the possibility of obtaining information more frequently than every ten years, which can be annual in certain situations.

11.2.1. Coverage assessment

 Methodology developed for the 2021 Spanish Census assures high quality information with no coverage problems:

The usual residence is determined using the Spanish population register „Padrón“: this register is composed of the entirety of municipal population registers (more than 8,000 municipalities), and the procedures to unify and synchronize them.
INE is the coordinating body – and has been for more than 25 years – of the “continuous Padrón” which includes the expiry procedures and periodic verification procedures designed to specifically update the residence of foreigners.
Overall, all residents are obliged to register in the municipal population register where they live most of the year. This includes hard-to-reach population such as people without legal residence or those registered in non-conventional dwellings, including homeless people.
Registration in the municipal population register is required for the exercise of basic rights, such as health coverage, schooling or for the future acquisition of legal residence permits.
A statistical population register is built from the Padrón as a starting point, with the objective of providing a more precise count of the resident population. The process starting from the administrative count and ending with the statistical count is called "signs of life" or "signs of presence".
The signs of life process is applied to foreign residents (11,4% of the total population) and essentially consists of assessing the plausibility of each person's residence on the basis of their presence in other administrative registers, so that for each individual it is decided whether they are counted as a resident or not.
In the signs of presence method applied in the 2021 Census, registers on employment and education topics have been used.
Specific details of the signs of life process can be found on page 18 of the General Census Methodologyhttps://www.ine.es/censos2021/censos2021_meto.pdf
Additionally, for specific groups such as centenarians, or children aged 0 and 1, processes are carried out to correct the occasional imperfections associated with the administrative management of the census

11.2.2. Post-enumeration survey(s)

Post-enumeration survey was not carried out.

12.1. Relevance - User Needs

The first user is the statistic national system, particularly Population Figures are used by INE as reference figures in all its statistics products (surveys, National Account, indicators…).

Population Figures are available for all those users who need to analyse the national demographic evolution or produce their own statistics. These figures are also used like official Spanish Population by the international orgatisations.

 Other types of users:

• Public organizations (Ministeries, Councils, Agencies...)
• Private companies
• Researches (Teachers at university, students, ...)
• Press and specialised media
• Private persons

 Needs can vary a lot among different users. But, most of the users that write to us, want more detailed information (maybe more geographic detail or more detail in the topics or both).

 In October 2023, the National Statistics Institute (INE) and the Institute of Economics, Geography and Demography of the CSIC (IEGD-CSIC) organised the 4th INE-CSIC Conference on Population Censuses and Demographic Statistics.

Coinciding with the Spanish presidency of the Council of the European Union, the first session was dedicated to holding the European Data Users Conference, the objective of which is to analyse the situation of social and demographic statistics in the European Union.

These conferences, which are a continuation of those held in 2015, 2018 and 2022, have been consolidated as a very useful instrument for the exchange between producers and users of official statistics, and have had a growing participation and interest from the academic world.

12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction

The INE has conducted general user satisfaction surveys in 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2019 and plans to continue conducting them every 3 years. Their purpose is to ascertain the perception that users of INE statistics have regarding the quality of the information they use, and the degree to which their needs are met. In addition, other special surveys are carried out to find out about certain aspects: dissemination of information, quality of certain publications, etc.

On the INE website, in the Methods and Projects / Quality and Code of Good Practice / INE Quality Management / User Surveys section, you may consult the surveys carried out to date.

At present, there is no specific user satisfaction survey for the 2021 Census; however, INE user satisfaction surveys indicate the level of satisfaction of the group of users of Demography and Population statistics in which this statistical operation is included.

We have an email account that receives all the user requests, complaints, opinions and gratitudes. We try to give to each user a personalized answer as soon as possible. We try to learn from the information received by our users. If the same complaint is considered by several users, we try to improve our system and to provide that information to the users.

12.3. Completeness

The census information provided is complete for all requirements of Reg. 763/2008, including details of any census topics and breakdowns required.

13.1. Accuracy - overall

Information is provided for each census topic separately. See the sub-concepts 13.1.1 - 13.1.35.

13.1.1. Overall accuracy - Usual residence

The usual residence is determined using the Spanish population register „Padrón“: this register is composed of the entirety of municipal population registers (more than 8,000 municipalities), and the procedures to unify and synchronize them.

INE is the coordinating body – and has been for more than 25 years – of the “continuous Padrón” which includes the expiry procedures and periodic verification procedures designed to specifically update the residence of foreigners. 

Overall, all residents are obliged to register in the municipal population register where they live most of the year. This includes hard-to-reach population such as people without legal residence or those registered in non-conventional dwellings, including homeless people.

Registration in the municipal population register is required for the exercise of basic rights, such as health coverage, schooling or for the future acquisition of legal residence permits.

A statistical population register is built from the Padrón as a starting point, with the objective of providing a more precise count of the resident population. The process starting from the administrative count and ending with the statistical count is called "signs of life" or "signs of presence".

The signs of life process is applied to foreign residents (11,4% of the total population) and essentially consists of assessing the plausibility of each person's residence on the basis of their presence in other administrative registers, so that for each individual it is decided whether they are counted as a resident or not.

In the signs of presence method applied in the 2021 Census, registers on employment and education topics have been used.

Specific details of the signs of life process can be found on page 18 of the General Census Methodologyhttps://www.ine.es/censos2021/censos2021_meto.pdf

Additionally, for specific groups such as centenarians, or children aged 0 and 1, processes are carried out to correct the occasional imperfections associated with the administrative management of the census

 

The extent to which there is a population residing in Spain who are not registered have been assessed using INE's own surveys, which interview tens of thousands of households each year.

For example, the Labour Force Survey (EPA) is INE's largest regular household survey. To conduct this survey each quarter, a sample is selected from a frame of dwellings, independently of the census.

Subsequently, the people who have responded to the survey are cross-checked with the register, in order to complement the information with administrative data.

For example, in the fourth quarter of 2016, this cross-referencing results in a total of 134,412 persons aged 16 years and over collected in the EAPS questionnaires, with only 179 records (0.13%) not found in the census database, which also allows searching for persons with expired registrations. This does not mean that these persons are not or have not been registered but that, in the absence of identifiers such as DNI, NIE or passport, the search by other fields (name and surname, date of birth,...) has not allowed for a univocal link with the register

13.1.2. Overall accuracy - Sex

This variable is obtained directly from the population registry. No reasons for unreliability

13.1.3. Overall accuracy - Age

This variable is obtained directly from the population registry. No reasons for unreliability

13.1.4. Overall accuracy - Marital status

No reasons for unreliability. 

 Given that the marital status of the person is not recorded in the Register and that there is no single source that provides information on the entire population as a whole, the estimation of this variable is carried out using different administrative sources.

There are 4.4% of values not available.

Registered partnerships are assigned as single as there is no legislation at national level regulating this matter.

Therefore, there may be some difference between census data and those obtained in surveys where registered partners often self-report as married.

13.1.5. Overall accuracy - Family status

No reasons for unreliability. 

 It should be noted that the definition of household used is based on the concept of cohabitation, not common consumption, i.e. the household in the census is the household-dwelling (not the household-budget) and  all persons living in the same dwelling are members of the same household

In order to determine the composition of the households, it is necessary to reconstruct the kinship relationships between its members from the information contained in the available administrative records.

The concept of "head of household" or "reference person" in the census does not apply.

 For each of the members of the household, information is sought in all the available administrative records (birth certificates, marriage, tax files, foreigners' files, national identity card files, etc.) on who their father, mother or possible spouse or partner is. And from this information all the relationships between the members of the household are constructed.

This will allow us to generate the families, family nuclei and household structure.

From the information contained in the administrative registers it is possible to locate almost all parents who live together with their children. For the detection of couples, however, it is necessary to impute around 8% of the registers from a statistical model.

13.1.6. Overall accuracy - Household status

No reasons for unreliability.

The definition of household used is based on the concept of cohabitation, not common consumption, i.e. the household in the census is the household-dwelling (not the household-budget) and  all persons living in the same dwelling are members of the same household.

 Homeless people are included in the total population as they are registered in population register. A homeless survey carried out in early 2022 shows that more then 85% of homeless people are correctly registered in the population register.

But they cannot be distinguished in a specific category, because in the population register they are mainly registered in collective establishments (social centres, charity, ...).

13.1.7. Overall accuracy - Current activity status

No reasons for unreliability. 

Information about CAS was obtained from aministrative registers:

• Workers contributing to Social Security (General Treasury of Social Security) who were registered during the week prior to January 1 of each year.
• Job seekers registered in public employment service
• Civil servants who do not contribute to the Social Security and belong to mutual insurance companies.
• Persons in the Social Security system who received a pension and the reason for the pension (retirement, disability, orphan's, widow's, widower's).
• Persons who receive a pension but are not members of the Social Security System (Passive Classes).
• Educational information on students enrolled in the educational system, both for university and non-university education.
• Tax information (Tax Agency and similar forms of the Regional Tax Authorities).

 There is no single source that provides information on the entire population as a whole. For each person 15 years of age and older, information is sought from economic and educational sources, first of all.

When taking into account so many sources, it is normal that different situations coexist and lead to conflict for each person. For example, a person who has registered as a job seeker and has, at the same time, enrolled in a certain course of study.

Most commonly, each person appears in only one source or, if he or she appears in several, the information is the same. But in about three million cases, a single situation must be assigned to each person. To do this, a series of priority rules are established based on the European Census Regulation. For example: If the person is found to be employed in any source, he or she is considered to be employed.

The percentage of unassigned stands at 9.26% of the population of 15 years of age and over for the 2021 census. The fact that a person is listed as unassigned in such a category should not be unusual. In fact it is logical that many of the inactive do not appear in these records. The curve by sex and age of the unassigned is, moreover, very similar to the curve by sex and age of the inactive which would indicate that a large part of these unassigned are inactive. For this reason, all of them are imputed to the category of other situations of inactivity.

 

13.1.8. Overall accuracy - Occupation

No reasons for unreliability.

The estimation of these variable is carried out by incorporating the available administrative information on employment. In addition to the administrative sources already mentioned in the CAS estimation, it is necessary to add the employment contracts registered since 2001.

It should be noted that occupation is the most difficult labour variable for employed persons to estimate through administrative registers and, in fact, it is the only variable for which we do not restrict ourselves to registers for which no information is available in order to make imputations.

For wage and salary earners it is well known that there is a downward bias in the occupation reported in their main source of information, the SEPE contracts: elementary occupations are over-represented to the detriment of skilled occupations.

One of the reasons for this bias is attributed to the seniority of the contract. For those who signed contracts years ago, the information available is that of the occupation at the time of signing the contract. Any variations that may have occurred in terms of occupation within the same company, which do not give rise to contractual modifications, are not reflected in this file.

The comparison of microdata between surveys, past censuses and contracts has made it possible to detect and correct systematic downward biases in the occupation of contracts,

Age, educational level, economic activity and employment status of the persons with contracts are taken into account when assessing the existence of a possible bias in the recorded data, and also when probabilistically imputing a new occupation.

The estimation of these variable is carried out by incorporating the available administrative information on employment

13.1.9. Overall accuracy - Industry

No reasons for unreliability. 

The estimation of these variable is carried out by incorporating the available administrative information on employment. In addition to the administrative sources already mentioned in the CAS estimation, it is necessary to add the employment contracts registered since 2001.

The activity of the work establishment has very good coverage in administrative records. For civil servants the assignment is direct, and for salaried employees there is full coverage. The difficulty lies in the selection of the highest quality source, as economic activity, place of work and occupation must be consistent with each other.

13.1.10. Overall accuracy - Status in employment

No reasons for unreliability.

the estimation of these variable is carried out by incorporating the available administrative information on employment

The estimation of this variable does not involve much difficulty, since the sources in which the employed appear allow us to classify them almost directly between the self-employed and employees.

The self-employed are searched  in the Central Business Register (CBR). In the event of finding any premises with employees according to this source, they are classified as employers.

 

13.1.11. Overall accuracy - Place of work

No reasons for unreliability .

 The estimation of these variable is carried out by incorporating the available administrative information on employment. In addition to the administrative sources already mentioned in the CAS estimation, it is necessary to add the employment contracts registered since 2001

The place of work is derived from the same source as the economic activity. In case the winning source of the activity itself includes the detail of the place of work at municipality level, it is assigned. In the case that the source from which the activity is obtained provides only the province of work, without going to the municipal detail, given the appropriate circumstances, it is estimated, by extending from the province, the municipality of work.

For 88% of employed persons, the municipality of work is obtained, while this percentage increases to 98% in the case of the province of work, which means that only 381,000 records are left without data.

13.1.12. Overall accuracy - Educational attainment

No reasons for unreliability. 

The estimation of the level of education is carried out by incorporating the administrative information on the highest level of education attained, which is information on the highest level of education found in the records. The sources available are the following:

• Population Register : because of the formation of the Electoral Roll, the school or academic diploma is a registration variable that must be recorded. This information is collected in the population register as a continuous record and filtered with the information received every six months from the Ministry of education.
• Ministry of education titles: information is available on the files of non-university degrees, university degrees, homologations of foreign degrees to university and non-university degrees, which the Ministry of Education continuously sends to INE.
• 2001 Census: for the nearly 34,5 million people aged 16 and over who responded to the census questionnaire in 2001 with reference date November 1, 2001, we have information on the level of education attained up to that time.
• 2011 Census: for the nearly 3,5 million people aged 16 and over who responded to the census questionnaire in 2011 with reference date November 1, 2011, we have information on the level of education attained up to that time.
• Job seekers from the State Public Employment Service : information on the level of studies completed is available for persons registered in the public employment services.
• Certificates of professionalism : there is a file of certificates of professionalism that accredit competences recognized by the Educational Administration, having the effects of validation of the corresponding professional modules.
• University graduates: historical information is available on university graduates from 2010-2011 to the year prior to the census.
• Non-university graduates: historical information is available on graduates from the 2014-2015 academic year to the year prior to the census.
• Central Registry of Foreigners: information is available on foreigners with study authorization in Spain.
• Contracts in force: information on the educational level of the worker is available since 2001 on the last contract of each person as of January 1 of the reference year.
• Enrolled in the educational system in non-university education of the Minstry of Education: information available from the 2014-2015 academic year to the year prior to the census.
• Enrolled in university studies of the Council of Universities: information available from the 2010-2011 academic year to the year prior to the census.

No administrative registry exists in Spain that provides the educational level of the whole population with the required disaggregation. Moreover, the coverage of each data source is different. In general, Padrón or Ministry of Education titles have nearly complete coverage, but are less detailed than university and non-university graduates files; and Padrón or prior censuses may not have the most up-to-date information on each individual.

We could simplify by saying that the use of that many sources is needed in order to update the level of education from Padrón. For example, if available, enrolment studies can be used to impute a higher level of education than the one of Padrón, due to the entry requirements of many university careers, vocational trainings, etc.

It is worth noting that less than 2% of people have their educational level imputed. Moreover, the vast majority of those imputed are found in one or more than one source of educational information but at an insufficient level of disaggregation.

The structural differences between the census data and, for example, the LFS, are minimal: the census shows a lower percentage of the population with low levels of education (illiteracy and incomplete primary education) than the LFS, placing these people at the primary education level, perhaps due to a downward self-classification in the survey. There is also a certain shift between the categories of general and vocational orientation in the second stage of secondary education. The comparison in higher education is very close to that of the LFS, so that the capture in the higher categories also seems to be adequate.

13.1.13. Overall accuracy - Size of the locality

No reasons for unreliability

13.1.14. Overall accuracy - Place of birth

No reasons for unreliability.

Mother's place of usual residence at the time of birth. It has been necessary to search for this information in the population register, using, where possible, the place of residence of the child (which must coincide with the mother's place of residence) rather than the place of birth.

13.1.15. Overall accuracy - Country of citizenship

No reasons for unreliability

13.1.16. Overall accuracy - Year of arrival in the country

No reasons for unreliability. 

The year of arrival is the calendar year in which a person most recently established usual residence in the country.

The population register contains the necessary information to construct migration variables almost directly, given that the previous places and periods of residence are preserved for each person, but the great limitation is that it begins its history in the year 1996.

Nothing is known, therefore, about the previous movements of those registered before 1996 beyond their place and date of birth.

A link has been made with the 2001 census, which was an exhaustive census, so that, whenever an individual can be associated with their 2001 questionnaire, information can be obtained on their residential history prior to 1996, provided that the information contained in the common years between both sources (1996 - 2001) is consistent.

In the event that the person cannot be found in the 2001 Census, or the information obtained is inconsistent, an imputation process will be carried out.

In the case of the year of arrival in Spain, only 0.6% of the registers have imputed information.

13.1.17. Overall accuracy - Residence one year before

No reasons for unreliability.

The relationship between the current place of usual residence and the place of usual residence one year prior to the census. The population register contains the necessary information to construct this variable, given that the previous places of residence are preserved for each person

13.1.18. Overall accuracy - Housing arrangements

Homeless people are included in the total population as a homeless survey carried out in early 2022 shows that 85% of homeless people are correctly registered in the population register.

But they cannot be distinguished in a specific category, because in the population register they are mainly registered in collective establishments (social centres, charity, ...).

13.1.19. Overall accuracy - Type of family nucleus

It must be noted that, although in Spain there are registers of unmarried couples, both of the same sex and of different sexes, there is no state-wide law on unmarried couples; some autonomous communities have registers of unmarried couples and others do not.

The rights acquired may vary according to the Register in which you are registered.

The existing registers of unmarried partnerships are not always coordinated with each other so it cannot be ensured that they prevent persons to commit themselves into multiple partnerships with different partners. For this reason, registered partnerships are not reported, only married couples and couples in consensual union.

13.1.20. Overall accuracy - Size of family nucleus

It must be noted that, although in Spain there are registers of unmarried couples, both of the same sex and of different sexes, there is no state-wide law on unmarried couples; some autonomous communities have registers of unmarried couples and others do not.

The rights acquired may vary according to the Register in which you are registered.

The existing registers of unmarried partnerships are not always coordinated with each other so it cannot be ensured that they prevent persons to commit themselves into multiple partnerships with different partners. For this reason, registered partnerships are not reported, only married couples and couples in consensual union.

13.1.21. Overall accuracy - Type of private household

No reasons for unreliability

13.1.22. Overall accuracy - Size of private household

No reasons for unreliability

13.1.23. Overall accuracy - Tenure status of households

No reasons for unreliability

The tenure status of the dwellings is obtained from the tax information together with information on the ownership of the properties from the Cadastre's Register of Final Ownership Situations.

In the category "Households occupying all or part of a dwelling unit with another tenure status tenure" includes situations such as dwellings given to their occupants free of charge or at a low price by another household or a company, situations where the occupant only has the usufruct of the dwelling

With this information, tenure status has been obtained for slightly more than 75% of the households. For the rest, an automatic imputation process has been carried out, using the external frequencies of the ECEPOV (Survey of Essential Population and Housing Characteristics).

13.1.24. Overall accuracy - Type of living quarter

No reasons for unreliability

 In the population register, people are allowed and encouraged to register in all kinds of places, even if they are not conventional dwellings. That is, there are a small number of people registered in caravans, shacks, caves, tents, ....

“Registration in substandard housing and of people without an address: the Register must reflect the address where each resident of the municipality actually lives, and in the same way that registration is completely independent of legal-private disputes over the ownership of the dwelling, it is also independent of the physical, hygienic-sanitary or other circumstances that affect the address. Consequently, substandard dwellings (shacks, caravans, caves, etc. and even total absence of a roof) can and should be included as valid addresses in the census.

The most extreme situations may raise doubts as to whether or not they should be included in the municipal register. The criterion that should govern this decision is determined by the possibility or impossibility of sending a communication to the registered person at the address that appears in his or her registration. If it is reasonable to expect that the addressee will receive the communication, he/she should be registered at that address.

The correct application of this criterion determines, on the one hand, that any address where neighbours actually live should be accepted as an address, and, on the other hand, that a "fictitious address" can and should be used in cases where a homeless person habitually resides in the municipality and is known to the corresponding Social Services.”

13.1.25. Overall accuracy - Occupancy status

No reasons for unreliability

13.1.26. Overall accuracy - Type of ownership

No reasons for unreliability

13.1.27. Overall accuracy - Number of occupants

No reasons for unreliability

13.1.28. Overall accuracy - Useful floor space

No reasons for unreliability

The useful floor  space of the dwellings is provided. No information is available on the number of rooms in dwellings.

The surface area of the dwellings is obtained from the Cadastre data. But the Cadastre data do not contain information on the useful surface area, they contain information on the built surface area.

In order to comply with the requirement to provide the useful surface area of the dwelling, it has been necessary to make an estimate based on a model that relates both surfaces. For this purpose, an updated sample representing all provinces was selected from different real estate web pages in such a way that the dwellings in the sample contained information on both usable and constructed surface area.

Once the sample had been filtered and the relationship between both variables had been analysed, it was found that the best model for estimating the useful surface area from the constructed surface area, is  least squares line that passes through the origin

13.1.29. Overall accuracy - Number of rooms

Not available

13.1.30. Overall accuracy - Density standard (floor space)

No reasons for unreliability

13.1.31. Overall accuracy - Density standard (number of rooms)

Not available

13.1.32. Overall accuracy - Water supply system

No reasons for unreliability

This information does not appear in administrative records. It is based on the results of the ECEPOV survey (Survey of Essential Population and Housing Characteristics).

13.1.33. Overall accuracy - Toilet facilities

No reasons for unreliability

This information does not appear in administrative records. It is based on the results of the ECEPOV survey (Survey of Essential Population and Housing Characteristics).

13.1.34. Overall accuracy - Bathing facilities

No reasons for unreliability

This information does not appear in administrative records. It is based on the results of the ECEPOV survey (Survey of Essential Population and Housing Characteristics).

13.1.35. Impact of the COVID pandemic on data accuracy

No impact

13.2. Sampling error

Not applicable for register-based and traditional censuses.

13.3. Non-sampling error

Not applicable.

14.1. Timeliness

 Data transmission of all hypercubes : March 2024

Metadata transmission March 2024

 

14.2. Punctuality

Not applicable.

15.1. Comparability - geographical

Data keep total inter-territorial and demographic consistency at all breakdown levels considered.

15.1.1. Geographic information - data quality

Demographic data keep total inter-territorial and demographic consistency at all breakdown levels considered.

15.2. Comparability - over time

Not applicable.

15.3. Coherence - cross domain

All transmitted data, spatial (grid) and statistical (hypercubes) have the same reference date and are consistent at all levels.

15.4. Coherence - internal

No significant inconsistencies between the hypercubes detected.

In so far as the census operation does not require the performance of any field operations, the costs refer mainly to human resources employed in the INE Central Services and to the IT infrastructure for development and dissemination.

The total budget for the operation in the 2020 Annual Programme was 1,753.76 thousand euros.

The budget for the years 2021 to 2024 included in the National Statistical Plan is 4,537.20 thousand euros.

17.1. Data revision - policy

The INE has a Policy that regulates the basic aspects of the revision of statistical data, guaranteeing the transparency of the processes and the quality of the products. This policy is described in the document approved by the Governing Board in the meeting held on 13 March 2015. The document is available in the section "Methods and projects / Quality and Code of Practice / INE Quality Management / Revision Policy of the National Statistics Institute":

 This general policy sets the criteria to be followed for the different types of revisions: routine - in the cases of statistics that by their nature are revised on a regular basis - ; major revisions, due to methodological changes or changes in the basic reference sources of the statistics; and extraordinary revisions (for example, those due to an error in statistics already published).

Annexes:
Data revision policy

17.2. Data revision - practice

Planned revision of the variable HAR (Housing arrangements) included in hypercubes 02, 13 and 14. Planned transmission date of revised hypercubes no later than 15 April 2024.

18.1. Source data

Census is based on administrative sources.

Only the variables Water supply system, oilet facilities, Bath facilities, Type of heating are based on the results of a survey (Survey of Essential Population and Housing Characteristics).

18.1.1. List of data sources

The list is provided separately for each topic

18.1.1.1. List of data sources - Data on persons

Population Register (Padrón)

Owner: Municipalities are the owners of their own population register, but the National Statistical Institute centralizes and manages it.
In Spain, the statistical population register is based on the administrative population register known as the Padrón. It has great advantages over other possible alternative population registers (tax registers, health cards or Police D.G. files), since all residents are obliged to register in the population register of the municipality where they live most of the year, even people who might at first appear to be difficult to access, such as people without legal residence or registered in non-conventional dwellings.
The National Statistics Institute of Spain (INE – Instituto Nacional de Estadística), is the coordinating body for the more than 8,000 municipal registers and, since its implementation more than 25 years ago, the Padrón has matured considerably as a population register, establishing, among others, procedures for expiry and periodic verification of the residence of foreigners that make it an updated, reliable and accurate population register.
Contains personal information (identifiers, names, dates of birth), place of birth, nationality, educational attainment, addresses.
Regulation of the Municipal Register: Law 7/1985, of 2 April 1985, regulating the Bases of the Local Regime (LBRL), and the Regulation of Population and Territorial Demarcation of Local Entities (RPDT), approved by Royal Decree 1690/1986, of 11 July 1986, which entrusts the INE with the coordination of the more than 8,000 municipal registers.

Labor-related data sources

 

• Workers contributing to Social Security (General Treasury of Social Security) who were registered during the week prior to January 1 of each year.
• Job seekers registered in public employment service
• Civil servants who do not contribute to the Social Security and belong to mutual insurance companies.
• Persons in the Social Security system who received a pension and the reason for the pension (retirement, disability, orphan's, widow's, widower's).
• Persons who receive a pension but are not members of the Social Security System (Passive Classes).
• Contracts : information since 2001 on the last contract of each person as of January 1 of the reference year.
• Tax information (Tax Agency and similar forms of the Regional Tax Authorities):Persons who file personal personal income tax.

Educational data sources

 

• Ministry of education titles: information is available on the files of non-university degrees, university degrees, homologations of foreign degrees to university and non-university degrees, which the Ministry of Education continuously sends to INE.
• Job seekers from the State Public Employment Service : information on the level of studies completed is available for persons registered in the public employment services.
• Certificates of professionalism : there is a file of certificates of professionalism that accredit competences recognized by the Educational Administration, having the effects of validation of the corresponding professional modules.
• University graduates: historical information is available on university graduates from 2010-2011 to the year prior to the census.
• Non-university graduates: historical information is available on graduates from the 2014-2015 academic year to the year prior to the census.
• Enrolled in the educational system in non-university education of the Minstry of Education: information available from the 2014-2015 academic year to the year prior to the census.
• Enrolled in university studies of the Council of Universities: information available from the 2010-2011 academic year to the year prior to the census.

Other administrative sources

 

• Central Registry of Foreigners: information is available on foreigners with study authorization in Spain, esidence permits (to identify parents, couples, marital status ,…
• Health register (Health Insurance Database):Insured persons and beneficiaries.
• Live births Birth data are obtained from the Statistical Birth Bulletin, filled out by the parents, relatives or health staff so obligated by law to declare the childbirth and recorded in the Civil Register.
• Deaths Death data are obtained from Medical Death Certificate/Statistical Death Bulletin. This document is filled out by the doctor who certifies the death and registered in the Civil Register.
• Marriages data are obtained from the information recorded in the Civil Register and from Statistical Marriages Bulletin (Civil Registries not computerized), filled out by the spouses who’s obligated by law to declare the marriage and recorded in the Civil Register.
• Divorces are obtained from the judgments and decrees provided by the various competent courts in the matter, just as from notary’s offices.

18.1.1.2. List of data sources - Data on households

Population Register (Padrón)

Contains personal information (identifiers, names, dates of birth), place of birth, nationality, addresses. indicates, for each person, what is his registered home. This registered household is given by the people registered in same address.
Once the census households have been determined, we proceed to search for each person, within their census household, to the father, mother, spouse and other possible relatives, which will allow us to generate, as in previous censuses, families, family nuclei and household structure.

• Search for parents:
Since a person's father or mother does not change over time, use information about parents and children from past censuses.
In addition, the Birth Bulletins of the Natural Population Movement are available, available since 2002, which includes identifying data of the father and mother of each born, which allows assigning to each born the father and mother that appear in these bulletins.
Information is also exploited from the Central Registry of Foreigners, managed by the D.G. Police, on Residence Authorizations for foreigners for family reasons (family reunification). We have information about the person who grants the right to reside in Spain and also of the family members who benefit from this right and their relationship with the reference person.
Thus, a database of mothers-children and fathers-children is available, first search
Thus, if someone continues to share a home on the reference date with any of the parents who appeared in previous censuses and meet certain conditions (sex, age difference) it is considered that this is your father or mother.
For people to whom we have not assigned a parent in the previous step we look for candidate for father among the household records for which the name of the father matches and share the first surname. Information about the father's name is provided by the D.G. Police from the DNI file (or NIE in the case of foreigners) or recovered from the Birth Bulletins.

• Search for a spouse or partner:
A first step consists of declaring spouses or partners those people who share a home and have a child in common.
The next step is to recover the couples registered in the 2001 and 2011 Censuses, as well such as the marriages included in the Marriage Bulletins, those located in the files that the Tax Agency and the Provincial Treasury and coming from the Central Registry of Foreigners.
There is, therefore, a database, which increases every year, of potential couples made up of people who have found themselves ascouple in any of these records at any given time.
These potential couples are considered valid if they continue to share housing in the registry database.

18.1.1.3. List of data sources - Data on family nuclei

Population Register (Padrón)

Contains personal information (identifiers, names, dates of birth), place of birth, nationality, addresses. indicates, for each person, what is his registered home. This registered household is given by the people registered in same address.
Once the census households have been determined, we proceed to search for each person, within their census household, to the father, mother, spouse and other possible relatives, which will allow us to generate, as in previous censuses, families, family nuclei and household structure.

• Search for parents:

Since a person's father or mother does not change over time, use information about parents and children from past censuses.
In addition, the Birth Bulletins of the Natural Population Movement are available, available since 2002, which includes identifying data of the father and mother of each born, which allows assigning to each born the father and mother that appear in these bulletins.
Information is also exploited from the Central Registry of Foreigners, managed by the D.G. Police, on Residence Authorizations for foreigners for family reasons (family reunification). We have information about the person who grants the right to reside in Spain and also of the family members who benefit from this right and their relationship with the reference person.
Thus, a database of mothers-children and fathers-children is available, first search
Thus, if someone continues to share a home on the reference date with any of the parents who appeared in previous censuses and meet certain conditions (sex, age difference) it is considered that this is your father or mother.
For people to whom we have not assigned a parent in the previous step we look for candidate for father among the household records for which the name of the father matches and share the first surname. Information about the father's name is provided by the D.G. Police from the DNI file (or NIE in the case of foreigners) or recovered from the Birth Bulletins.

• Search for a spouse or partner:

A first step consists of declaring spouses or partners those people who share a home and have a child in common.
The next step is to recover the couples registered in the 2001 and 2011 Censuses, as well such as the marriages included in the Marriage Bulletins, those located in the files that the Tax Agency and the Provincial Treasury and coming from the Central Registry of Foreigners.
There is, therefore, a database, which increases every year, of potential couples made up of people who have found themselves ascouple in any of these records at any given time.
These potential couples are considered valid if they continue to share housing in the registry database.

18.1.1.4. List of data sources - Data on living quarters

Building and dwelling register (Cadastre)

Contains information about all buildings and dwellings in national territory and some of its characteristics

18.1.1.5. List of data sources - Data on conventional dwellings

Building and dwelling register (Cadastre): Contains information about All buildings and dwellings in national territory and some of its characteristics

18.1.2. Classification of data sources

Classification of the data sources as requested by Reg. 2017/881, Annex point 2.1.

18.1.2.1. Classification of data sources - Data on persons

02.Register-based censuses

18.1.2.2. Classification of data sources - Data on households

02.Register-based censuses

18.1.2.3. Classification of data sources - Data on family nuclei

02.Register-based censuses

18.1.2.4. Classification of data sources - Data on living quarters

02.Register-based censuses

18.1.2.5. Classification of data sources - Data on conventional dwellings

02.Register-based censuses

18.1.3. List of data sources per topic

Sheet 2 "Data sources" in excel "Further Qualitative metadata" included as Annex

18.1.4. Adequacy of data sources

The multiple sources used in the construction of the 2021 census have been rigorously evaluated and only those determined to be adequate have been used.

18.1.4.1. Adequacy of data sources - Individual enumeration

The characteristics of each statistical unit are recorded separately, so that each characteristic can be cross-classified with others.

18.1.4.2. Adequacy of data sources - Simultaneity

All information refers to the same point in time (reference date).

18.1.4.3. Adequacy of data sources - Universality within the defined territory

Data are provided for all statistical units in a defined territory (for persons in particular, data are provided for all usual residents in a defined territory).

18.1.4.4. Adequacy of data sources - Availability of small-area data

Data are available for small geographical areas and for small subgroups of statistical units.

18.1.4.5. Adequacy of data sources - Defined periodicity

We keep ten yearly cycle in censuses.

18.2. Frequency of data collection

The INE maintains collaboration agreements with different organizations with the objective of receiving, with the periodicity, punctuality and required format, the files with administrative data necessary for the preparation of the Census.

18.3. Data collection

Provided separately 

18.3.1. Data collection - Questionnaire based data

Not applicable.

18.3.2. Data collection - Register based data

The administrative files used to construct the census variables are received periodically from government agencies.
Collaboration agreements have been signed with them.
The INE, by virtue of the Public Statistical Function Act, has the authority to collect information from the different administrative bodies for the compilation of statistics.
In general, all administrative records have a unique identifier (national identity card or foreigner identification number, or passport). In addition, except in specific cases, they have first and last names and in some cases date of birth, which facilitates cross-referencing with the population registry.

18.3.3. Data collection - Sample survey based data

Not applicable.

18.3.4. Data collection - Data from combined methods

Not applicable.

18.4. Data validation

Inconsistent or missing information will be edited and imputed using specific programs designed according to the nature of each census variable.

18.5. Data compilation

Once a first version of the census file has been constructed, a specific purification and imputation procedure will be applied to variables with missing or inconsistent information, through ad-hoc designed processes.

18.6. Adjustment

Not applicable.

Comments.

 

Annexes:
Methodology Censuses 2021

ES@- OUT- 2021 EU Census programme – further qualitative metadata for Spain - Ares(2024)5322219

The data present the results of the 2021 EU census on population and housing, following Regulation (EC) 763/2008; Regulation (EU) 2017/543; Regulation (EU) 2017/712 and Regulation (EU) 2017/881.

22 July 2025

The information is given separately for each census topic. See the sub-concepts 3.4.1 - 3.4.37.

The EU programme for the 2021 population and housing censuses includes data on persons, private households, family nuclei, conventional dwellings and living quarters.

The persons enumerated in the 2021 census are those who were usually resident in Spain at the census reference date, 01 January 2021.

Data are available at different levels of geographical detail: national, NUTS2/NUTS3 regions and local administrative units (LAU), grids.

Information is provided in the sub-concepts 5.1 - 5.3.

Information is provided for each census topic separately. See the sub-concepts 13.1.1 - 13.1.35.

Counts of statistical units should be expressed in numbers and where is needed rate per inhabitants enumerated in the country.

Once a first version of the census file has been constructed, a specific purification and imputation procedure will be applied to variables with missing or inconsistent information, through ad-hoc designed processes.

Census is based on administrative sources.

Only the variables Water supply system, oilet facilities, Bath facilities, Type of heating are based on the results of a survey (Survey of Essential Population and Housing Characteristics).

Decennial.

 Data transmission of all hypercubes : March 2024

Metadata transmission March 2024

 

Data keep total inter-territorial and demographic consistency at all breakdown levels considered.

Not applicable.