The Census is compulsory based on the Act No 332/2020 Sb, on the 2021 Population and Housing Census. (Translator's note: “Sb” stands for the Collection of Laws of the Czech Republic.) All persons with a permanent residence or temporary residence for over 90 days and persons who have been granted asylum in the Czech Republic (or who have been granted subsidiary protection or temporary protection) are obliged to get counted. It includes also other persons who are in the decisive moment (midnight from riday 26 March to Saturday 27 March 2021) present in the territory of the zech epublic.
Only foreigners staying in the Czech Republic for less than 90 days (e.g. tourists) and foreigners enjoying privileges of the diplomatic corps and immunity are not obliged to get counted.
Only data that cannot be obtained in any other way are collected through the census forms. A large part of the data needed for the 2021 ensus is taken directly from the state’s registers, which is why we will only be asking for about half of the data than on previous census forms.
The Census cannot yet be done solely from existing administrative data sources. A dwelling (flat) register is missing. State databases also do not contain all the required information about education, economic activity and employment, commuting, addresses of usual residence, school or workplace locations. It is not possible to obtain data on the composition of households from the registers (for example, households of the elderly, households of single parents, etc.).
The Census serves all of us. It is hard to imagine that a society could function without having comprehensive information about itself. That is why censuses have been carried out in different forms since the ancient times, all around the world, from the poorest to the most economically advanced countries. We carry out censuses so that data on the whole population, its distribution, demographic, social, and economic characteristics, structure and way of housing of households are available, that is in mutual relationships from the nationwide perspective as well as in the smallest territorial detail. This information cannot be obtained in any other way. esults later help in many areas – e.g. for planning of transport, capacities of health establishments or kindergartens, updating of background materials for maps of areas with significant risk of flooding, preparation of territorial plans, or at fire responses.
The Census is compulsory (it is a statutory duty). Surveyed data, as governed by binding European regulations, have to be obtained by a nationwide survey/census. The value of the census lies in acquiring of information from the whole population as at the same moment. In case of a voluntary participation, results of the census would not be reliable and of sufficient quality. It would limit the extent of possibility of its use in a very negative way – for example, in decision making about capacities of kindergartens or retirement homes, when analysing flood areas or planning transport services. Should only part of the population fill in census forms, there would be a risk that the census would not contain data for all municipalities. Mayors, regional enterprises, or operators of local services would thus lose highly necessary data for their activity.
Pursuant to the Act No 332/2020 Sb, on the 2021 Population and Housing ensus, all obtained data will be used solely for statistical purposes. The results will only be published in an aggregate form (numbers, shares, or averages), which will not make identifying of natural persons possible. Data obtained for statistical purposes are not and cannot be in any way made accessible to other entities, which also includes state authorities or public authorities. It is a basic principle of official statistics functioning, guaranteed by law. Therefore, it is impossible for provision of any piece of data to cause any sanction, disadvantage, detriment, or damage to anybody.
The Czech Republic carries out the 2021 Census pursuant to the Regulation (E ) No 763/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council on population and housing censuses. The 2021 Census is also fully in accordance with the legal regulations on personal data protection, especially the GDPR [Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/E (General Data Protection Regulation)].
When we process the provided data, we take great care to protect privacy. We only process personal data in a lawful manner and for the purposes provided for by the law (statutory purposes). We thus comply with all the principles of personal data processing specified in the Article 5 of the aforementioned regulation, i.e. lawfulness, fairness, and transparency, purpose limitation, data minimisation, accuracy, storage limitation, integrity and confidentiality, and accountability. In accordance with the principle of minimisation, we store personal data only for as long as it is necessary. All identification data are (after scanning and verification of quality of census forms and matching of necessary information from the databases of the state with filled in data) permanently destroyed. Paper census forms are shredded according to strict security standards and personal data in electronic form are securely erased. Detailed information about the processing of personal data is available at scitani.gov.cz/privacy.
We will use all the data only to process and publish aggregate statistical results (numbers, shares, or averages).
All identification data are during the processing (i.e. after scanning and verification of quality of census forms and matching of necessary information from the databases of the state with filled in data) anonymised and after the processing they are permanently destroyed. Paper census forms are shredded according to strict security standards.
The results of the Census will not contain any personal data. They will only be published in an aggregated form (as a summary) (numbers, shares, or averages), which does not make identification of natural persons possible. It is one of the basic principles of official statistics.
Czech Post cooperated on updating and adding of information about houses and dwellings (flats), implementation of the test/trial census, printing of paper materials, distribution and collection of paper census forms (questionnaires), their digitisation (scanning) and shredding, and operation of a network of contact points at its selected post offices. It was decided by the Government of the Czech Republic in its esolution No 391 of 19 June 2018 (at approving a draft subject-matter of the bill on the 2021 Population and Housing Census) that field works will be done by Czech Post.