Other countries’ approaches to the future of census
Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2025 7:10 am
Ten years on, we are much more knowledgeable and experienced about both the possibilities and pitfalls of working with these data. It is clear that there are some important topics covered by the census which are very hard to obtain from administrative data.
On the other hand, an important advantage uk rcs data would be avoiding the big census effort every ten years, both in terms of the increased workload and recruitment of temporary staff, but also in the currency of the data.
It seems certain that any recommendation will include greater timeliness of the core demographic and social information data.
France has moved to a rolling census – instead of trying to enumerate the whole population in one go, a survey covers around 13% of the population each year as part of a 5-yearly cycle, and these data are pooled across years to give a census-equivalent picture of the French population.
Meanwhile, because the data are stratified, answers from the latest year can offer rapid insight into social change and modifications to the question set can be introduced progressively.
On the other hand, an important advantage uk rcs data would be avoiding the big census effort every ten years, both in terms of the increased workload and recruitment of temporary staff, but also in the currency of the data.
It seems certain that any recommendation will include greater timeliness of the core demographic and social information data.
France has moved to a rolling census – instead of trying to enumerate the whole population in one go, a survey covers around 13% of the population each year as part of a 5-yearly cycle, and these data are pooled across years to give a census-equivalent picture of the French population.
Meanwhile, because the data are stratified, answers from the latest year can offer rapid insight into social change and modifications to the question set can be introduced progressively.