The Director of the State Statistical Office (SSO), Apostol Simovski, and the Deputy Director, Ilmi Selami, today at an online press conference via Zoom informed about the Methodology for preparing, organising and conducting the Census of Population, Households and Dwellings in the Republic of North Macedonia, 2021, which aims to ensure uniform principles for organising the enumeration and uniform application of methodological bases in the enumeration.

In the extensive presentation, the basic features of the Census were presented, as the most significant statistical operation, conducted in accordance with United Nations standards, Eurostat rules and other international and domestic regulations.

According to Director Simovski, the combined Census method, which will be applied for the first time in our country, is a complex methodology that gives many possibilities and is based on a combination of data obtained in the field by individual enumeration, with data from the pre-census statistical database, which contains data obtained from existing registers, using the Personal Identification Number (PIN) of citizens. 

"The advantages of using the combined Census method are: reducing the time required for data collection, reducing the cost of the census operation, reducing the time required for data processing, and the final data from the Census will be available in a shorter period of time, while at the same time ensuring a much higher level of quality of Census data", Simovski said at today's online press conference.

The combined method employs a pre-census database of available data from the Ministries of Interior, Information Society and Administration, Education and Science, Labour and Social Policy, Employment Agency, Agency for Real Estate Cadastre, Pension and Disability Insurance Fund, as well as the Public Revenue Office, the Civil Registry Office and the available data in the SSO from the regular statistical surveys in terms of education, vital statistics, business register, etc. 

A novelty in the Census is the architecture of the system, which is based on a combined methodological approach that involves field enumeration using laptops by enumerators, connected to a specially developed cloud application, instead of paper questionnaires.

"The 2021 Census is a comprehensive operation, and the most important thing is that it collects data on geographic, demographic, educational, economic, migration, ethno-cultural characteristics and data related to disability", said Director Simovski and pointed out that information related to the Census Methodology can be found on the SSO website.

"The basic feature of the Census is that it collects data on the smallest territorial units, data for a defined period of 10 years, characteristics of persons, that is, individual enumeration, by respecting the principles of universality and simultaneity. The data are collected for a particular moment, which is statistically called a reference moment, that is, 21 March and 1 April", said Director Simovski, adding that the units to be included in the Census are: persons, households and dwellings.

According to the State Statistical Office, the Census will provide data on three categories of population:

- Total resident population, which consists of: citizens with a place of usual residence in the Republic of North Macedonia, regardless of whether at the time of the Census they are in the place of residence or elsewhere in the Republic of North Macedonia; foreign citizens residing in the Republic of North Macedonia for more than 12 months (one year), with permanent or temporary residence permit; citizens with a place of residence in the Republic of North Macedonia, who at the time of the Census are abroad for less than 12 months (one year) for work or other reasons, as well as members of their households staying with them; persons with a place of usual residence in the Republic of North Macedonia, who at the time of the Census are working in the diplomatic-consular missions of the Republic of North Macedonia abroad, the United Nations and its organisations, offices or representatives of chambers of commerce abroad, business units abroad, military representatives of the Army of the Republic of North Macedonia abroad and citizens engaged on the basis of international, technical and other cooperation, as well as members of the households temporarily staying abroad with these persons (regardless of the length of stay abroad for any of the above reasons).

This category also includes the following persons who have been continuously present in the country for more than 12 months: foreigners with recognised refugee status who are in the Republic of North Macedonia at the time of the Census; foreigners with recognised right to asylum for subsidiary protection who at the time of the Census are in the Republic of North Macedonia; foreigners who have applied for recognition of the right to asylum and who are in the Republic of North Macedonia at the time of the Census; other persons who are on the territory of the Republic of North Macedonia at the time of the Census (and who meet the previously defined criteria).

- The total non-resident population consists of the following persons-units of the Census: citizens of the Republic of North Macedonia, who at the time of the Census have been abroad for more than 12 months (one year) for work or other reason, as well as the members of their households staying with them; foreigners residing in the Republic of North Macedonia for up to 12 months (less than one year), with a temporary residence permit.

- Total enumerated population, a category that includes the previous two population categories.

Units that are not enumerated are: the diplomatic personnel of foreign diplomatic and consular missions in the Republic of North Macedonia, as well as their family members; foreign military personnel and members of their families, located in the Republic of North Macedonia, as well as members and representatives of international organisations and communities who are residing in the Republic of North Macedonia at the time of the Census; foreign citizens who at the time of the Census are in the Republic of North Macedonia on a business trip, private visit, vacation, medical treatment, excursion, tourism and similar trips; foreign citizens who cross the state border daily for work or education.

Also, the Census will not cover the dwellings of diplomatic and consular representatives of foreign countries and the dwellings owned by other countries; - uninhabited (vacant) dwellings that have been emptied for demolition; - empty dwellings in buildings where occupancy is not yet allowed; - facilities that are fully used for storage of agricultural tools and implements, agricultural products, heating materials, etc., or are used for processing of agricultural products; - collective dwellings in which there are no individual household (homes and hotels for singles, retirement homes, student dormitories, monastery lodgings, etc.)

In the Census, for which it was emphasised that in all procedures the health protocols of the Ministry of Health will be strictly observed, based on the recommendations of the Commission for Infectious Diseases, in addition to the State Statistical Office, also included are the Statistical Council, 150 state instructors, 500 regional instructors and 5500 regional enumerators.

Director Simovski explained that the entire Census process will be based on daily information about persons infected with COVID-19 or who are in mandatory isolation, and this procedure will be carried out with special health protocols, which ensure maximum safety for enumerators and other citizens.

Before the official start of the Census, early enumeration will be organised in the period 1-15 March for certain categories of persons, such as: military personnel abroad and in the country within the Ministry of Defence; correctional and penal institutions as part of the Ministry of Justice; people without documents with the help of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy; and our diplomatic and consular missions abroad with the assistance of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Self-enumeration/self-registration of citizens of the Republic of North Macedonia living/staying abroad at the time of the Census will be done from 1 to 21 April by self-enumeration via an online application available on the SSO website, or according to legal norms they can be enumerated by people who know them well and have all the necessary information about them. When enumerating these persons, the application does not accept incomplete data, and thus the possibility of enumerating persons with incorrect data is eliminated.

Responding to media questions, Director Simovski urged all citizens to participate in the Census, because this serious operation will lay the foundations for creating high-quality policies for social and economic development of the country, which are in the interest of all citizens.