Census staff gear up for the big count

CENSUS staff will have to deal with security gates and intercoms to deliver at least 150,000 of their forms to Irish homes over the next three weeks.

As the 4,400 enumerators employed by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) begin their work this week, one of the biggest challenges will be accessing flats and apartments.

CSO senior statistician Aidan Punch said plans are in place to make sure everybody is reached in time, as forms must be personally delivered to householders well ahead of census night on Sunday, April 23.

“The first thing will be to gain access to apartment blocks, and we have been in touch with estate managers about security codes and the like. But then the challenge will be to find a time when people are at home, which is more difficult with couples both working and people spending different hours at jobs,” he said.

“In 1991, 6.5% of all occupied households were apartments or flats, this rose to almost 9% for the 2002 census and I’m sure it will be 10% this time around,” Mr Punch said.

The enumerators have been briefed in recent weeks on how to ensure they make contact with somebody in each of the country’s estimated 1.5 million households. They will even drop calling cards with their mobile phone numbers through the letter box at residences where they have failed to make contact.

This is just one aspect of the €50 million, nine-week operation to deliver and collect census forms, with CSO staff likely to take at least six months to fully analyse the figures.

However, the headline population figures are expected by mid-May when statisticians will also be able to tell the net migration in Ireland over the past four years by comparing the head count with births and deaths figures in the same period.

“We expect to find the overall population has risen from 3.9 to 4.2 million, and that around 40,000 people have entered the country each year,” Mr Punch said.

Launching the 2006 Census of Population campaign, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said it’s a window on the future.

“It gives us important insights into how we need to work and plan to meet the needs of a rapidly changing and growing population,” he said.

The 2006 Census includes new questions asking people about their ethnic or cultural background, whether they have a physical disability or learning difficulty, and what relation, if any, each person in the house is to the others.