A Year before the Russian digital population census

Thanks to the introduction of new technologies, the 2020 Russian population census will significantly differ from all previous censuses. This was stated by Pavel Malkov, Head of Rosstat, during press conference "A Year before the Russian digital population census", which was held on October 1 at “Digital October Centre” in Moscow.

Journalists and experts learnt about the census strategy, its logo and visual design of the main statistical event of the decade.

Mr. Malkov emphasized that the 2020 Russian population census is planned as a project that should meet all modern society needs. He pointed out a complicated character of the event as its important distinguishing feature. “One can respond in one of the three ways: self-response using the online questionnaire on the portal of public services (gosuslugi.ru), with the help of an enumerator, or at a special point, including in the premises of “My Documents” multifunctional centers for providing federal and municipal services”, Pavel Malkov explained. For the first time, enumerators throughout the country will be canvassing their assigned areas with electronic tablets and maps. “All census data will be collected digitally, and this process will be monitored in our Situation Center”, added Mr. Malkov.

He noted that the census will use big data provided by mobile operators and government authorities. He explained that information obtained during census, as well as data from government authorities and mobile operators, will be consolidated into the specialized analytical platform “Population”. “Perhaps, this will be the last census in the traditional sense. In the future, there will be completely different rules and technologies, but we do believe that accurate, unbiased statistics is always in demand,” emphasized Mr. Malkov.

The census total budget will be about 33 billion rubles. “This amount is to cover the costs of the entire preparation period and all types of activities related to the future census. Approximately half of this estimate will be the wage fund. About a quarter of the funds will be spent on IT infrastructure and new technologies, including the use of tablets, the “State Services” web-portal and development of the analytical platform “Population”, said Mr. Malkov.

The Head of Rosstat considers that statistics is one of the universal international languages of communication. According to the UN program, population censuses will be held in 28 countries of the world in 2019. “In early October, our friends from Azerbaijan and Belarus are to kick off their censuses. Today we are also launching the active phase of preparing the main statistical event of the decade - the first digital census in Russia, and it is symbolic that we begin this path here - at “Digital October”, concluded Pavel Malkov.