CROATIAN CENSUS 2011 - EXPERIENCES Damir Plesac, e-mail: plesacd@dzs.hr Dubravka Rogić-Hadžalić, rogicd@dzs.hr Budapest, 15-16 June 2017

2011 CENSUS Traditional census (total coverage) Reference date: midnight, 31.03.2011. Census duration: 4 weeks (1st.-28th of april) Number of participants: more then 17.000: 13.943 Enumerators / 26.000 Enumeration areas 1.950 Supervisors 193 Instructors 45 Coordinators 147 Members of the County Census Commissions 965 Members of the Census committees of branch offices in towns and municipalities 760 Head of the census centers 321 PES participants ~ 400 Processing workers Informacije o Popisu 2011.

ORGANIZATION Within CBS DG Census Manager Census Board (16 members) 7 Working groups: Census law and financing Methodology IT processing Technical Documentation Dissemination & Promotional Activities Organization and Logistics PES

PLAN ACTIVITIES – MS PROJECT Very good formal structure of organization Excellent connectivity over share point portal An excellent overview of all activities within the Census with MS project Good working atmosphere

THE CENSUS QUESTIONNAIRES The 2011 Census is based on the traditional method - interview method. Two basic questionnaires were used: PERSONAL QUESTIONNAIRE (43 questions) and QUESTIONNAIRE FOR HOUSEHOLDS (6 questions and the list of household members) and HOUSING UNITS (15 questions) - in A3 format for scanning. The enumerators had the enumerator's book to register all the census units and all the addresses in the enumeration area.

CENSUS TOPICS In accordance with: Regulation (EC) No 763/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council Recommendations for the 2010 Censuses of Population and Housing All the “core topics” and a lot of “non-core topics” from the Recommendations were included in the 2011 Census

HIRING PROCESS AND TRAINING OF CENSUS PERSONNEL More than 17.000 field workers + CBS workers First target: Unemployed Students were the best solution, but they could not be absent from Universities for such a long time + social moment (unemployed) After 5 days of education the applicants were tested

HIRING PROCESS AND TRAINING OF CENSUS PERSONNEL Croatian Employment Office Decided that enumerators and controllers are employees Decided to deny them their unemployment benefits Some of them simply quit

HIRING PROCESS AND TRAINING OF CENSUS PERSONNEL Timing for hiring enumerators and controllers OCR applications had to come in and then processed and sent back together with the results It took time, so usually workers were appointed on Friday to start education on Monday 69.000 applications = a lot of complaints Complaints: mail, fax, post, through Government, President, Ombudsman Some might be right  not always time to react

EXPANDED CENSUS TO 4 WEEKS Positive side Savings on training (less enumerators, less controllers) Learning by doing Enough time for enumeration Extra week for check-ups and controls Negative side Lost their willingness and necessary concentration More workload on enumerators (Saturdays and Sundays included)

OCR DATA CAPTURE OCR and all connected work last long Problems with bad handwriting which brought difficulties in OCR Lots of staff engaged costly

Clear cartographic overview - Enumerators had received photographs of census areas over which data were entered, not sketches as in past censuses: Informacije o Popisu 2011.

PROMOTIONAL ACTIVITIES Well designed and planned (but due to money savings little done) into 3 phases: introductory phase (prior the 2011 Census) - Determined goals of promotion, defined visual identity of Census 2011, Census promotion at CBS website, a specialized brochure with basic facts on Census 2011created, specialized brochure aimed at younger population created, promotion through specialized radio shows in quiz form on basic facts on Census Intensive phase (March, April 2011) - organization of the press conference, TV and radio spot broadcasting, newspapers advertising, updating Internet and Intranet CBS sites on Census 2011 progress, specialized radio and TV broadcast on Census 2011, leaflets, brochures and posters distribution billboard and city lights advertising, buying media space covering national and regional area Clearing phase (May) - press conference presenting final data, participating in different TV and radio shows

GOOD EXPERIENCE Coordinators and deputies were provided with notebooks with mail & Internet + GSM phones: Easy distribution of additional materials Easy daily communication Problems were solved on line Reporting to HQ in Zagreb on Daily basis

GOOD VISUAL PRESENTATION Posters Census cases pens

CALL CENTER Thousands of calls Thousands of mails Every day 8 a.m. – 10 p.m. Typical answers answered immediately, rest forwarded to experts

QUESTIONNAIRES IN LANGUAGES AND SCRIPTS OF NATIONAL MINORITIES AND IN ENGLISH Questionnaires in languages and scripts of national minorities and in English distributed both in paper and electronic form Could be printed on demand in Enumeration centers Could be downloaded from web page

MATERIALS - more then 40 different forms

Keep good things, change and improve bad CONCLUSION Keep good things, change and improve bad