DS Population> Census > Methodology EN REVAMP

To produce census data, the EU members have developed different methods. These are considered to be best suited to their countries' administrative practices, traditions and data sources. The EU legislation currently in force upholds this diversity in that it is concerned with output harmonisation rather than input harmonisation.

EU members can assess for themselves how to conduct their 2021 censuses and which data sources, methods, and technology are best in the context of their country. This gives them flexibility, in line with the principles of subsidiarity, cost effectiveness, and with the competences of their statistical office.

Some countries carry out traditional fieldwork employing census interviewers (enumerators) to collect census data. This may be complemented with technologies including laptops or tablets connected to the database to avoid using paper questionnaires, telephone interviews or online self-enumeration.

Other countries have developed statistical registers that they update regularly to avoid the costly fieldwork caused by census taking. Others use a combination of the two approaches, obtaining part of the data from registers, but still carrying out limited surveys.

The tendency in Europe for most countries is to move away from the traditional census towards the register-based system.