In 2015 the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) prepared “the Conference of European Statisticians Recommendations for the 2020 Censuses of Population and Housing”. The document was adopted by the Conference of European Statisticians in June 2015. The Statistical Division of UNECE organized this work in close collaboration with Eurostat and in conjunction with the revision of the global Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses: the 2020 Round by the UN Statistics Division (UNSD) in New York.
The recommendations provide the overview of the methodologies adopted by countries in the 2020 round in the UNECE region. The aspects of census data confidentiality and security, definitions, legislation, census phases, dissemination, quality assurance and quality management as well as applicable technologies are also discussed in the document. The proposed list of topics for the 2020 round of population and housing censuses is attached to the recommendations. The list is following: Population basis, Geographic characteristics, Demographic characteristics, Economic characteristics, Agriculture, Educational characteristics, Migration, Ethnocultural characteristics, Disability, Household and family characteristics and Housing characteristics. Besides, census microdata can be used to engage at the lowest geographical level, the level that matters for development: censuses are the only statistical sources to provide data users with population counts and main characteristics of individuals and households at very detailed geographical levels, enabling to identify vulnerable groups. Census data are also used as sampling frames. All the factors mentioned above are the main benefits of the census.
UN Secretary General requested a joint effort of UNSD, UN agencies, and international and regional development organizations to enhance technical assistance to national statistical offices in order to strengthen capacities to implement the 2020 round of Population and Housing Censuses as a fundamental priority for achieving sustainable development and the 2030 Agenda. In many countries, including Georgia, SDGs implementation is focusing on people and the role of population data, obtained from population and housing censuses, household sample surveys, civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) systems or population registers, is essential. The core mandate of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is to strengthen national capacities to ensure that population and housing censuses are of high quality and uphold international principles and standards.
UNFPA has programmes in 155 countries and provides robust and widespread support to governments for national census planning, implementation, and use of the resulting data. Institutional support includes strengthening capacity for the use of census data to track national and sub-national population dynamics, as well as spatial and social inequalities in development, including indicators for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD). Population data are needed for 98 global SDG indicators (out of 244). The population and housing census underpins national data ecosystems, providing population denominators for SDG indicators, and the master sampling frames for all national and subnational surveys. In addition, the demand for disaggregating all SDG development indicators by strata such as migration status and disability calls for the inclusion of related census questions. UNFPA’s Strategy for the 2020 Census Round has been developed from a critical analysis of lessons learned during the 2010 round and in response to new global development frameworks.
The strategy focuses on strengthening national capacities to generate, analyze, disseminate and utilize high quality, timely, relevant, and disaggregated geo-referenced census data to inform, implement, monitor, and
evaluate sustainable development policies, plans and programmes for the public good. One of the focus areas of UNFPA’s activities in countries is: Strengthen the role of census data in SDG and ICPD monitoring frameworks. The primary goals of the UNFPA strategy for the 2020 census round are: a) to strengthen the capacity of national statistical systems to collect, process and disseminate georeferenced census data; and b) to assure that census data are fully utilized to generate the types of socio-demographic intelligence needed to inform and monitor the achievement of subnational, national and global development agendas. The outcome of the UNFPA Census strategy (Everyone, everywhere, is counted and accounted for, in the pursuit of sustainable development) has output on improvement of national population data systems to map and address inequalities and to advance the achievement of the SDGs.
For instance, UNFPA advocates for inclusion of questions on migration, disability, type of marriage and marriage registration. The inclusion of questions on migration in the census meets the SDG 2030 Agenda’s call to define and measure migratory status.
