Population and housing census

ended

An ultimate goal of censuses is to delimit the universe of persons residing in a given geographic area. Being such universe the backbone for demographic and social statistics, a crucial emphasis is put on how such universe should be defined and measured while ensuring international comparability. Nevertheless, existing EU regulations on demographic statistics let space for diverging interpretations of the definition of usually resident population in use. The ESOP regulatory framework is expected to eliminate such controversial situation in a way that responds to the needs of national level data users while ensuring more coherent data across national data producers. The general objective of this proposal is to improve the comparability of Hungarian demographic statistics through examining the possibilities of implementing different population definitions. On the one hand, the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (HCSO) will carry out methodological experiments on how the currently used methods of estimating the usually resident population might be improved. On the other hand, population definitions as proposed by the ESOP regulatory framework will be applied to produce alternative population estimates. In both exercises, the involvement of multiple data sources and analyses of the ‘signs of life’ are foreseen. Such experiments and respective quality assessments are expected to contribute to develop methods that enable the improvement of high quality demographic statistics and enhancement of international comparability. Keywords: Population definitions, Usual Residence, ESOP