2011-05-04Pressrelease
2011 Census: the questions of the household survey
WIESBADEN – What is your marital status? Do you have a general school certificate? What do you work as? These and other questions will have to be answered by some 7.9 million people in Germany in a few days. They belong to the households selected at random to be asked about their educational attainment and their living and working situation in the household survey of the 2011 Census.
To ensure that the census results will be comparable all over Europe, the European Union has provided for a binding catalogue of variables. Germany strictly adheres to these predetermined variables, only the question about the religious affiliation was added to the list, and the migration background is covered with more detail than required by the European Union.
The interviewers will ask a total of 46 questions in the household survey, which as a rule can be answered quickly and without difficulty. First personal data are taken down, for instance name, address, date of birth, citizenship, affiliation to a religious society under public law, marital status and main residence.
Information on religion, persuasion or belief is provided on a voluntary basis. To obtain data on migration and immigration, the questionnaire contains the questions as to whether the respondent or the parents have moved to Germany and if so, when and from which country.
The questions which follow relate to education and training and to employment. At first glance, one question will appear extraordinary to some of the respondents: “Did you do any paid work for at least one hour also in the week from 9 to 15 May?” This is to find out if a person is employed. The question is based on the labour force concept of the International Labour Organization (ILO), which is used to make labour markets comparable at an international level.
According to the ILO definition, any person at working age is considered employed if he or she worked for remuneration, as self-employed or as a family worker for at least one hour in the one-week reference period. Also, people who formally have a job but did not work temporarily within the reference period because they were on vacation or sick are regarded as being employed.
According to the ILO definition in its EU-specific version, any person aged between 15 and 74 years is considered unemployed if he or she was not employed in that period, but actively sought work over the four weeks preceding the survey. For that reason, the respondent is asked in the census if he or she did anything to find work in the last four weeks.
For the complete questionnaire of the household survey please refer to Questionaires.
Not all information collected by the Census will be evaluated statistically: auxiliary variables such as name and address help to organise the Census. They are needed, for instance, to make sure that inhabitants are not counted twice and interviewers find the right contact persons. They will be deleted as soon as possible.
Those who will be asked for information in the household survey will receive a written announcement in the next few days or weeks informing them about the interview.
If they do not want to be helped by the interviewer, respondents may ask to be handed over the questionnaires and complete them alone. Then they have to send the questionnaires back by mail to the survey office or hand it in there. For all those who wish to save postage, an online questionnaire will be provided at www.zensus2011.de from 10 May 2011. The 2011 Census is conducted using a register-based procedure – first and foremost, data from administrative registers are used. In addition, the 2011 Census Act, which was passed in 2009, provides for a census of buildings and housing of the total of 17.5 million owners and for surveys of residential homes and collective living quarters in addition to the household survey described above.
For further information please contact the Federal Statistical Office.
© Statistisches Bundesamt (Destatis)
