The census of buildings and housing: an important basis for planning the future

There are no current statistics in Germany on what municipalities have a particularly large number of empty dwellings, on where there is a lack of dwellings or on how people heat their dwellings or houses. This is why a census of buildings and housing was conducted as part of the 2011 Census. It provides reliable information on the stock of dwellings in Germany and on housing space available to the population.

Among other things, such results are an indispensable basis for decision-making in housing policy and regional planning at the federal, Land and municipal levels.

The largest survey of the 2011 Census

As there are neither reliable basic data nor a register on residential buildings in Germany, the information had to be obtained through a complete enumeration. Therefore, from late April 2011 to July 2012, all of the 17.5 million owners or managers of houses and dwellings were questioned through a postal survey. The census of buildings and housing thus was the largest survey of the 2011 Census.

What was asked?

The questionnaire of the census of buildings and housing (PDF, 1MB, file not barrier free) included questions, for example, on the type of building, the year of construction, the number of dwellings and the type of heating. Questions on dwellings referred, among other things, to the size, the number of rooms and the number of occupants.