Dutch Censuses Databases Providing access to the Dutch Population census of 1971 drs. L.J.G. Schreven

Structure Privacy issues concerning the 1971 census Digitising the 1971 census 1.Approach 2.Difficulties and solutions 3.State of affairs

The end of an era In 1971 the last general census was held. Why? Unwilling population! Causes: Deep scars left by World War 2 Fear for an all-knowing government (Big Brother) Fear for computerised data on the whole society Consequences: Public protest against the census Media attention to all issues concerning privacy policy Political pressure on Statistics Netherlands

Results A new law concerning privacy was passed in 1970 This delayed the census until Still there were some people unwilling to cooperate Opposition against censuses: (absolute figure) unwilling citizens percent unwilling (about ) 1980A census test showed an average unwillingness of 26 percent. In big urban areas this rose to almost 60 percent 1981 census was first postponed, later it was cancelled

Failure? 1971 census has been regarded as a failure by politicians and statisticians Why? 1.The publics’ resistance against the census 2.It took years before Statistics Netherlands could produce all results

Failure? Success! From a historians point of view the 1971 census was a success!

Digitising the 1971 census Approach, difficulties and solutions and state of affairs

Approach Detailed description of the data Researching different methods of availability of data (and documentation) Manufacturing a test data file Researching the statistical security of data Preparing the digital archiving of data

Difficulties Very soon after the project got underway data problems were discovered. 1.Data were incomplete Missing labels Missing cases 2.Data were false ‘Impossible’ data

Solutions 1.Missing labels: scanning – editing – reentering 2.Missing cases: recovering ‘ancient’ data by going back to the source 3.Impossible data: reestablishing corrupt data

Metadata and documentation Metadata in (D)DDI Documentation in Portable Document Format (PDF) Documentation report on the data files

Data availability: Remote Execution The data are rendered available in cooperation with Statistics Netherlands. Privacy issues restrict availability, therefore we decided to use Remote Execution. To facilitate Remote Execution a test data file was constructed, which had to be secured.

State of affairs Still running in September Detailed descriptions of both the data and the documentation Updating the website ( GIS component

Neighbourhood in Focus

Statline Cartographic

Summary Difficulties with data were overcome Metadata and documentation are collected. Work is still progressing on the descriptions A test data file was constructed to facilitate Remote Execution The website will be updated Applications for regional analyses of the data will be available through Statistics Netherlands