UNECE Statistical Division WS Population Census 2004

Technologies used by ECE countries in their 2000 round

of censusesSocial and Demographic Statistics

Section UN Economic Commission for Europe -

Statistical Division

ECE Work Session on Gender Statistics Geneve, 18-20 October 2004

UNECE Statistical Division WS Population Census 2004

Data entry Methods

Data-entry Method Number of countries

Keyboard 23

OMR 14

OCR/ICR 25

Internet 8

Other 3

UNECE Statistical Division WS Population Census 2004

Double data entry by method

Country % data double-entered

Data-entry Method

Armenia 35 Keyboard

Azerbaijan Republic 10 Keyboard

Bulgaria 20 Keyboard

Czech Republic 2 OMR

Canada 20.54 Keyboard

Italy 5 OCR/ICR

Kyrgyzstan 10 Keyboard

Malta 100 Keyboard

Poland 5 OCR/ICR

Slovakia 25 OCR/ICR

Ukraine 1 OMR

UK - England and Wales 100 OMR

UK - Northern Ireland 100 OMR

United States 5 OMR

UNECE Statistical Division WS Population Census 2004

Data entry technology

Technology is not an end by itself

UNECE Statistical Division WS Population Census 2004

Data entry Methods: timeliness

Keyboard OMR OCR/ICR

0-4 0 1 3

5-6 8 1 4

7-9 2 0 4

>9 1 0 1

Average 6.27 3.75 5.75

UNECE Statistical Division WS Population Census 2004

Data entry Methods

Software used Number of countries

Own-software 27

Commercial products 18

Free-access software 2

UNECE Statistical Division WS Population Census 2004

Data Coding

Software used Number of countries

Manual coding 21

Assisted coding 23

Automatic coding 28

UNECE Statistical Division WS Population Census 2004

Data coding

Only 6 countries reported the use of ready-made packages for data coding while 26 countries reported the development of their own package.

UNECE Statistical Division WS Population Census 2004

Microdata databases

Type of database Number of countries

High level (Oracle, SQL Server, …)

34

Desktop 5

Statistical (SPSS system file, etc.) 13

Demographic (REDATAM, etc.) 5

Other 13

UNECE Statistical Division WS Population Census 2004

Proposal for a session on technology

ECE: The purpose is to Guide not

Prescribe

UNECE Statistical Division WS Population Census 2004

Proposal for a session on technology

Principles:

to build on existing UN Manual (Manual on data Editing and Manual on Census Management)

To give best practices/to discuss the conditions that need to be met in order to adopt technology

The latest technology is non necessary the best.

UNECE Statistical Division WS Population Census 2004

Proposal for a session on technology

1. Data entry (reference to the existing UN handbooks)

 1.1. Review of options

1.1.1 Brief Description1.1.2 Advantages and Shortcoming

1.2 Conditions that need to be in place in order for each solution to be successfully applied

1.3 The need to monitor data entry errors and measure the margin of error: double-entry operations

UNECE Statistical Division WS Population Census 2004

Proposal for a session on technology

2.Mapping 2.1. The use of GIS and GPS in improving

coverage3. Data coding

3.1. Key issues to consider and best practices

4. Data editing (reference to the UN Handbook on data editing)

4.1. Key issues to consider and best practices

UNECE Statistical Division WS Population Census 2004

Proposal for a session on technology

5. Sub-contracting

6. Methods to assure confidentiality – 6.1 Data dissemination– 6.2 Microdata