Demographic and Social Statistics

The United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), will convene the third Expert Group Meeting to revise the Principles and Recommendations (P&R) for Population and Housing Censuses. The meeting will take place in New York City from September 4-6, 2024. Since its establishment, the Expert Group and its seven Task Teams have conducted two rounds of revisions (June-December 2023 and January-May 2024). The focus of this meeting is to refine the second draft of the P&R for the 2030 round of censuses. The draft version will be reviewed to align with best practices and contemporary approaches in conducting population and housing censuses. The current census round has seen significant changes, including the use of technologies, adoption of multi-modal data collection, and utilization of administrative data sources. Many countries innovated to overcome challenges posed by the global COVID-19 pandemic during census operations. As a reference publication, the revised P&R will incorporate these innovations and experiences, providing comprehensive guidance to national statistical authorities for planning, organizing, conducting, and utilizing 2030 round population and housing censuses. The final draft will be presented to the Statistical Commission for endorsement in 2025.

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The Second United Nations Expert Group Meeting on the Revision of the Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses is organized by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) in New York from 13 to 15 December 2023. The main objective of the Expert Group meeting is to review the draft version of the Principles and Recommendations for the 2030 round. The Expert Group, which was established for the purpose of overseeing the revision of the Principles and Recommendations, held its first meeting virtually from 23 to 25 May 2023. The Expert Group set up seven Task Teams — corresponding to seven themes identified by the Expert Group as critical for the revision — to carry out the work of revising components of the publication. The meeting will review the draft version of the Principles and Recommendations with a view to bringing it in line with good practices and contemporary approaches to conducting population and housing censuses. A multitude of changes have been documented in the current census round pertaining to the use of technologies, adoption of multi-modal data collection, and utilization of administrative data sources. Many countries had to innovate to overcome the challenges of conducting censuses during the global COVID-19 pandemic. As a reference publication, the revised Principles and Recommendations will reflect the innovations made and the experiences collected thus far and provide comprehensive guidance to national statistical authorities for planning, organizing, conducting, and utilizing 2030 round population and housing censuses. It is expected that the next revision of the Principles and Recommendations will be submitted for endorsement by the Statistical Commission at its 56^th session in 2025.

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The Expert Group Meeting on the Synergies between Census, CRVS Systems and Administrative Records: Implications for the 4^th revision to the UN Principles and Recommendations on Population and Housing Censuses is co-organized by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). The meeting is to be held in New York from 11 to 12 December 2023. The expert group meeting will bring together experts from National Statistics Offices, CRVS Systems, and international organizations to review insights, experiences and lessons from recent census rounds and ongoing efforts to strengthen CRVS systems. The objective of the expert group meeting is to synthesize lessons and insights from recent census and CRVS efforts to guide the updating of the UN Principles and Recommendations on Population and Housing Censuses (Revision 4) in the following areas: i) the assessment of the completeness and quality of vital event registration data and identity management system data using census data; ii) the leveraging of administrative records from CRVS systems and related administrative registers for the production of census operations and census data; and, iii) the use of censuses to measure human mobility including international migration, internal displacement and refugee stocks and flows.

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The first Expert Group Meeting on the Revision of the Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses is organized by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) in a virtual format. The Expert Group will thoroughly review the existing version of the Principles and Recommendations with a view to bringing it in line with good practices and contemporary approaches to conducting censuses. A multitude of changes have been documented in the current census round pertaining to the use of technologies, adoption of multi-modal data collection, and utilization of administrative data sources. Many countries had to innovate to overcome the challenges of conducting censuses during the global COVID-19 pandemic. As a reference publication, the revised Principles and Recommendations should reflect the innovations made and the experiences collected thus far and provide comprehensive guidance to national statistical authorities for planning, organizing, conducting, and utilizing 2030 round population and housing censuses.

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The United Nations Regional Workshop on the 2020 World Programme for Population and Housing Censuses for Arabic-speaking Countries is organized by UNSD in collaboration with the UNFPA Arab States Regional Office, the United Nations Economic Commission for Central and Western Asia (ESCWA), and the Arab Institute for Training and Research on Statistics (AITRS). The workshop aims to help Arabic-speaking countries in achieving a common and enhanced understanding of international recommendations and standards on quality assurance in population and housing censuses, the impact, and challenges of conducting a population and housing census during the COVID-19 pandemic and other crisis situations, and the necessary preconditions and the challenges of transitioning to a registers-based census. The workshop will also provide a platform to discuss the experience, challenges, and good practices available among Arabic-speaking countries in census-taking during the 2020 census round. The Workshop will bring together census managers and experts from national statistical offices, census agencies, international and regional organizations to exchange views and experience on the three interrelated themes of the workshop. The workshop will be held in English. Simultaneous interpretation in Arabic and vice-versa will be provided.

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The third Expert Group Meeting aims to continue monitoring the challenges in conducting population and housing censuses during the pandemic. In addition, on day two, the meeting will cover data quality issues that may have arisen due to conducting the census during a pandemic and potential methods to address data quality concerns. Day three of the meeting will provide an opportunity to take a broader approach and discuss lessons learned from conducting censuses during times of crisis and provide recommendations for improving the resilience of future censuses conducted. It is likely that future census operations will have to contend increasing uncertainty due to natural disasters, health emergencies, political instability, or other unforeseen disruptive events. None of these events can be predicted in advance, but contingency planning for the unexpected will be a vital component of delivering a successful census going forward into the 2030 round.

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The United Nations Regional Workshop on the 2020 World Population and Housing Censuses: International Standards and Contemporary Technologies is organized by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), in collaboration with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) for French-speaking African countries. The workshop is conducted in French and English and in a virtual format.

The objective of the workshop is to introduce three of UNSD's latest international guidelines on population and housing censuses—the Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses, Revision 3, the Handbook on the Management of Population and Housing Censuses, Revision 2, and the Guidelines on the Use of Electronic Data Collection Technologies in Population and Housing Censuses—and the standards, concepts and methods contained therein with a view to facilitate planning and preparations for the 2020 round of population and housing censuses. The workshop also provides an opportunity to discuss the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on conducting 2020 round of population and housing censuses and possible modifications in census procedures

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The Expert Group Meeting on the Draft Handbook on Registers-Based Population and Housing Censuses is organized by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) in a virtual format, with the aim of reviewing the draft handbook and providing input and guidance on the content of the draft handbook. The purpose of this handbook is to strengthen the capacity of national statistical offices and census agencies on the process of transitioning from the traditional census methodology to other approaches involving the use of administrative registers and/or sources. This handbook also aims to elaborate on the key considerations and requirements for transitioning from the traditional census to other census methodologies, and on the importance of building institutional capacity and infrastructure for maintaining statistical registers. Once finalized, this handbook will become a component of the United Nations methodological framework for population and housing censuses in the 2020 round, anchored by the UN principles and recommendations for population and housing censuses, and consisting of handbooks on census management, census editing, use of contemporary technologies for census-taking, measuring migration and post-enumeration surveys – all available at: https://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic-social/census/index.cshtml.

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The Second United Nations Expert Group Meeting on the Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Conducting Population and Housing Censuses and on Census Data Quality Concerns is organized by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) with the aim of continuing the monitoring of challenges in conducting population and housing censuses during the Covid-19 pandemic. The meeting will provide an opportunity to discuss alternative solutions in designing census operations conducted during the pandemic as well as address data quality and comparability issues resulting from pandemic protocols and recent changes in the design of census operations.

The meeting will address the following four main topics:

i) potential adjustments in census questionnaires to improve the relevance and quality of census data;
ii) innovative approaches in designing census operations for reducing the adverse impact of the pandemic;
iii) assessment of the quality of population and housing censuses concerning the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on process quality and output quality; and,
iv) effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on data analysis and comparability overtime.

The meeting will bring together census experts from NSOs, census agencies, international and regional organizations to explore challenges, good practices and lessons learned in conducting censuses during the Covid-19 pandemic.

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The United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) organized the United Nations Expert Group Meeting on the Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Conducting Population and Housing Censuses and on Census Data Quality Concerns, took place online from 9 to 12 February 2021. The Expert Group Meeting had extensive discussions on major changes in the design of census activities in response to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and challenges in producing timely, accurate and reliable small area statistics during the pandemic. The meeting also addressed data quality issues caused by the pandemic protocols and recent changes in the design of census operation and discussed potential challenges in comparing the results of censuses conducted during the pandemic with the results of previous censuses.

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The regional workshop is organized by the United Nations Statistics Division in collaboration with the National Bureau of Statistics of Tanzania, the United Nations Population Fund, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and the African Development Bank.

The main objective of the workshop is to introduce two recently revised international guidelines; the Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses (Revision 3) and the Handbook on the Management of Population and Housing Censuses (Revision 2), and the standards, concepts and methods contained therein in order to facilitate national planning and preparations for 2020 round censuses. The workshop will also provide a forum for reviewing national experience in, and document good practices on, the use of contemporary technologies including those for census mapping and data collection.

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The regional workshop is organized by the United Nations Statistics Division in collaboration with the National Population Commission of Nigeria, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and the African Development Bank.

The main objective of the workshop is to introduce two recently revised international guidelines; the Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses (Revision 3) and the Handbook on the Management of Population and Housing Censuses (Revision 2), and the standards, concepts and methods contained therein in order to facilitate national planning and preparations for 2020 round censuses. The workshop will also provide a forum for reviewing national experience in, and document good practices on, the use of contemporary technologies including those for census mapping and data collection.

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The United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) in collaboration with the Department of Statistics (DoS) of Jordan, the Arab Institute for Training and Research in Statistics (AITRS) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), is organizing the United Nations Technical Meeting on Use of Technology in Population and Housing Censuses. The meeting will take place in Amman, Jordan from 28 November to 1 December 2016. This meeting will bring together national statisticians to review national experience in, and document good practices on, the use of electronic data collection technologies in census enumeration. The meeting will also provide an opportunity to review the business processes for successful implementation of electronic data collection technologies in population and housing censuses The outcomes of this meeting will serve as input towards the drafting of guidelines on the use of electronic data collection technologies in censuses.

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The United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) and the Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific (SIAP) are organizing jointly a capacity building workshop on gender statistics, in cooperation with the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Government of Japan. This regional workshop will take place in Chiba, Japan from 16 to 19 April 2013. The purpose of the workshop is to train national statisticians on the production and use of gender statistics, as well as discuss the newly developed UN manual: Manual for Integrating a Gender Perspective into Statistics.

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The United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), in collaboration with the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS), is organizing a capacity building workshop for sub-Saharan African countries on Integrating a Gender Perspective into Statistics. The workshop will take place in Kampala, Uganda from 4 to 7 December 2012. The purpose of the workshop is to present the newly developed Manual for Integrating a Gender Perspective into Statisticsand train national statisticians on the production and use of gender statistics.

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