Focus and content—rationale and structure

For decades, countries have been collecting, through population censuses, data on economic characteristics of the population. For many countries the population census remains the only source for nationally representative statistics on economic characteristics, while for others the population census complements other sources (if available) such as household and labour force surveys, establishment surveys, and administrative registers. As the census is conducted only once every 10 years (in a few countries once in every 5 years), economic characteristics are often competing with demands for coverage of a wide range of other topics.

Related Subject(s): Population et démographie