The population number determined by the censuses was also used to allocate members of the Chamber of Representatives to the districts and to determine the number of provincial and municipal councilors, as well as the number of members of the district council and the district college. Furthermore, it was used to deduce the classification of municipalities regarding the contribution to the Municipal Fund to calculate the payment of certain municipal officials. As the National Register of Natural Persons seemed to be a reliable source to determine the population figure, it was recognized as the centralizing database of municipal registers in 1985. Since 1991 the official population figure has been determined by means of this register and the census has no longer a purely administrative significance. The significance of a census on a socio-economic level has become all the more important though.
Censuses are a useful source of information to receive a better knowledge of our society.
Originally, they were an administrative matter. Since 1856, they make it possible to make a socio-economic profile of a country. The size, composition and living circumstances of the population can be learned about. Reliable data from population and housing censuses have become an indispensable tool for political policy and planning, research purposes, enterprises and private persons. Information from censuses can easily be cross-referenced, to obtain a wide knowledge of whole fields of the economic and social life of civilians.