UNITED NATIONS STATISTICAL INSTITUTE FOR ASIA AND THE PACIFIC (SIAP)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMISSION FOR ASIA AND THE PACIFIC (ESCAP)ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR EUROPE (ECE)
UNITED NATIONS STATISTICS DIVISION (UNSD)
andECONOMIC COOPERATION ORGANIZATION (ECO)
Training on Register-based Population and Housing Censuses (PHC)
25 to 27 October 2022(Virtual)
CONCEPT NOTEI.

Background and rationale

The population and housing census is the most comprehensive source of data on the counts andcharacteristics of the population in a country, and the foundation of national statistical systems.
Population and housing censuses provide key social, economic, and demographic information thatare baseline evidence for planning, developing, implementing and monitoring policies in a rangeof areas. They are also a major source of population data for several of the Sustainable
Development Goal (SDG) indicators and for monitoring national progress towards achieving therelated SDG targets. Moreover, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which isunderpinned by the SDGs and the principle of leaving no one behind, calls for high-quality, timely
and reliable data disaggregated by sex, age, income, race, ethnicity, migration status, disability andgeographic location.
The 2020 World Population and Housing Census Programme, which was launched in 2015 by theEconomic and Social Council (ECOSOC) urges each country to conduct at least one census during
the period from 2015-2024. For this 2020 round, many countries have been exploring the use ofalternative statistical approaches and data sources that bring efficiency, improved coverage andtimely release and access to the data while reducing cost and the burden on respondents andmaintaining the quality of results.
Among the ECO member states1, there has been an increasing interest in register-based populationand housing census. This has been precipitated by several factors including the shift to reduce
costs and respondent burden, and to improve the quality and timeliness of census data. Furthermore,
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Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Türkiye,Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

1the unprecedented circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, which posed major challenges tofield operations (face-to-face interviews) for traditional censuses served as a major driving force
toward alternative approaches, such as the use of administrative data or register-based censuses.
The Training on Register Based Population and Housing Censuses is being jointly organized bythe Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) and Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific(SIAP) and will be conducted virtually from 25 to 27 October 2022. The training will be facilitatedby ECO, SIAP and experts from the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific(ESCAP) Statistics Division, Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) and the United Nations
Statistical Commission (UNSD).
II.

Objectives

The training aims to build participants’ knowledge and skills in the use of register-based censuses
to produce official statistics as an alternative to the traditional census, while also providing aplatform for exchanging experiences and lessons learnt in transitioning to this approach.
III.

Learning outcomes

By the end of this training, participants are expected to be able to:

Understand the concepts and features of register-based approaches for producing
official statistics.

Discuss the main issues that must be considered when using registers or administrativedata for statistical purposes.

Understand methodologies for linking and transforming data from registers into census
data.

Appreciate challenges and opportunities of transitioning to register-based censuses.

Format and ContentIV.

The training will be delivered in a virtual live lecture format, over a period of 3 days of 2-hoursessions, on each day. Training activities within each training session will be a mixture of virtualpresentations on the main topics from resource persons, interactive quizzes/ polls and question andanswer sessions.
The main topics to be covered include:Overview of the importance of population and housing censuses and evolution of census
approaches over time2
V.

What are register-based approaches for population and housing censuses: rationale,principles, and main considerations?
Facilitating a move to register based censuses: the necessary pre-conditions, challenges,
pitfalls, and opportunities
Integrating and transforming administrative data
Evaluating data quality
Transition experience of member states: best practices and lessons learnt
Target countries and participants

Target Countries (by invitation only): Azerbaijan, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Türkiye, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
Target participants: Countries will be invited to nominate participants. Nominees should betechnical staff, statisticians, or demographers from national statistical offices whose main
responsibilities are for planning or conducting the population and housing census. Nominations forthis training will be accepted on basis of the selection criteria provided in this document and thenomination form.
VI.

Language

The working language of the training is English, with simultaneous translation in Russian. Alltraining materials will be available only in English. Hence, nominees for this training should
ideally be proficient in or have a good understanding of English.
VII.

Evaluation

Certificates will be issued to those participants who attend and complete the workshop successfully.

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