19 March 2021
No fridges, bathrooms, cars, or computers. Nowadays, statisticians do not need to survey property conditions or even the health condition of the population. However, during the one-hundred-and-fifty-year long history of modern population censuses in our country, it was also surveyed whether people can read and write or how their households were equipped (or what their amenities were). In this year’s census, questions only pertain to those data that cannot be taken from administrative sources. Therefore, statisticians are interested, for example, in your commuting to work or to school or what your actual place of residence is.
Throughout the history of modern censuses, which started in 1869, pieces of information surveyed were significantly changing. During the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it was important, for example, to know the physical condition and literacy of its future soldiers. Under socialism, it was important to know how the level of equipment of dwellings (flats) with consumer durables such as fridges or TV sets was increasing. “In censuses, several same basic data are surveyed every time. It is important for comparing how we used to live and how we are living now. Namely that is what is highly valued. Nevertheless, every census has to concurrently take the current situation and new needs for information into consideration. Whereas in the past it was, for example, literacy or household equipment with a washing machine and a fridge what was surveyed, today it is no longer necessary,” Marek Rojíček, President of the Czech Statistical Office (CZSO), explains.
In 1869, the census included, for example, surveying of biological characteristics such as age and sex. However, physical handicaps including “blindness and deafness” were also recorded. Later, in censuses carried out in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, questions about mental disorders were included. Starting with the 1880 Census, a question about whether people can read and write was included.
Since 1960, we have available, among other things, data about the percentage of dwellings (flats) equipped with a water closet (in 1960, it was only 31.0% whereas in 1980 it was already 73.5%), a bathroom, a shower, and a water pipeline. The aim of censuses was to find out how equipment of households of workers, farmers, and the intelligentsia was changing.
In the 1991 Census (the first one after the Velvet Revolution), questions about equipment of a dwelling (flat) with, for example, the following were still surveyed: a freezer, own automatic washer, a colour television or a black and white television, a telephone, and also a personal car, a holiday house, a small house, or a cottage. In 2001, a question whether there is a computer in the household was newly included in surveyed data about equipment of households. On the contrary, equipment with a freezer and a washing machine was not surveyed any more.
Turn away from questions about ownership of various items also continued in 2011 when statisticians no longer asked about ownership of a car, a holiday house, a telephone, or other things in the household. As for the equipment, the only thing important for statistics was to know whether a household has a possibility to use a personal computer and whether it is connected to the Internet. An interesting fact is that in 2001 almost 16% of households had a computer and 6.7% a computer connected to the Internet. Ten years later, 65% of households already had a computer and almost 61% of households already had a computer connected to the Internet in Czechia.
The current Census surveys half the data compared to the one ten years ago. The census form (questionnaire) contains, for example, essential questions about place of habitual residence. That piece of data is important especially for municipalities so that they know how many people are actually living in them (not only on paper). Data about commuting to work or to school are important for organising public transport and planning transport infrastructure. Data about whether people live in rented accommodation or in their own property and how many members households in a given locality have are used for planning of housing policy.
From 12 March, informational support for the upcoming Census and help for the public with filling in of census forms (questionnaires) is provided by the 2021 Census Contact Centre. The Contact Centre is operating daily from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., including Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays at the following phone numbers: 253 253 683 and 840 30 40 50. However, you can also ask the Contact Centre questions by sending an e-mail to dotazy@scitani.cz or via chat in a virtual advisory centre for the 2021 Census.
The Population and Housing Census is carried out once in ten years with the aim to acquire precise and up-to-date data that serve to make planning of many aspects of the public life more effective. The 2021 Census is being prepared primarily as an online Census, for the first time in our history. People will be able to get counted in a simple and safe manner over the Internet at scitani.gov.cz. They can thus fulfil their legal obligation easily from their homes without a need to be in contact with a census officer (census enumerator) or to visit a contact point of the Census. Those, who will not get counted online between 27 March and 9 April, will have to fill in the paper census form (questionnaire), namely from 17 April to 11 May.
The Census is organised by the Czech Statistical Office, an independent and apolitical authority, that collects and publishes data from the following domains: demography, economy, health, labour market and social security, culture, sport, tourism, education, and the environment. Since 1990, it has been processing and publishing results of all elections. The main principles of work of the CZSO are as follows: Independence, Impartiality, Objectivity, Accuracy and Reliability, Same information to everybody at the same time, Protection of confidential data. In 2020, 61% of the population trusted the Czech Statistical Office and thus it belongs to the most trustworthy institutions in the country, according to the Public Opinion Research Centre.
Contact:
Jolana Voldánová
2021 Census spokeswoman
Mobile phone number: +420 704 659 357
e-mail: jolana.voldanova@scitani.cz
