Development of Censuses in Europe and Development for EC Statistical Co-operation European Commission (Eurostat) Jurgen Heimann UNFPA/PARIS 21 International Expert Group Meeting on Census Pretoria, November 2001

Development of Censuses in Europe Problems:  Increasing cost pressure  Increasing reluctance of people to answer questionnaires Search for solution:  Increased automatisation  Methodological change

Development of Censuses in Europe Group 1:Countries with traditional census Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Ireland, UK Group 2: Countries with entirely or largely register- based census Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden Group 3:Countries in transition from traditional to register-based census Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxemburg Group 4:Countries seeking for another solution France, Germany, Netherlands

Development of Censuses in Europe Community programme of population and housing censuses Census Round 2001  Guidelines - 30 core variables - Data collection methods - Delivery data for date  Output table programme - 40 tables for Eurostat

Development of Censuses in Europe Outline of Community Action Programme for next Round 2011  Strengthen collaboration with Statistical Division of UN/ECE  Identification of community needs  Support to national census preparation

Developments in EC Statistical co-operation Statistical Cooperation Strategy  Need for development of a strategy  Statistics projects part of larger programmes  Programming exercises linking strategies with statistics  Opportunities to mobilize financial and technical support

Developments in EC Statistical co-operation Eurostat’s role  Participation in PARIS 21 Initiative  Participating in Programming exercises  Participating in management of statistical projects  Focus on regional cooperation projects

Developments in EC Statistical co-operation Concerning censuses  Little involvement of Eurostat so far  EU biggest donor funding censuses in Sub- Saharan Africa  Need for improved co-ordination between member states and commission  Guidelines/ Strategies for future census funding  Support for research activities to reduce census costs