DS Population> Census > Methodology EN REVAMP

To produce census data, the EU members have developed different methods. These are considered to be best suited to their countries' administrative practices, traditions and data sources. The EU legislation currently in force upholds this diversity in that it is concerned with output harmonisation rather than input harmonisation.

EU members can assess for themselves how to conduct their censuses and which data sources, methods, and technology are best in the context of their country. This gives them flexibility, in line with the principles of subsidiarity, cost effectiveness, and with the competences of their statistical office.

Some countries carried out traditional fieldwork employing census interviewers (enumerators) to collect census data. These were complemented with the use of technologies including laptops or tablets used by enumerators, telephone interviews or online self-enumeration.

Other countries have developed the usage of administrative registers and statistical registers based on administrative data,  such as population registers, tax, social security administrative data, and systems used to administer health and education. This approach may reduce the cost of the census because the need for conducting potentially expensive fieldwork decreases.  

Other countries have used a combination of the 2 approaches, obtaining part of the data from registers, but still carrying out limited surveys.

The tendency for most countries in Europe is to move away from the traditional census towards a register-based system.