By Natasa Radic for Southeast European Times in Zagreb -- 21/03/11
The census is designed to gather detailed information about current residents.
Within months, at least on paper, most countries in the region will have an updated count of their people, as well as new information on social, religious, national and ethnic demographics.
Croatia will be among the first countries to hold its census, beginning on April 1st and ending four weeks later. Roughly 15,000 people will collect the data, with results to be published on June 30th.
Censuses don't come cheap, however -- Croatia's is expected to cost 23.6m euros. The questionnaire itself has 45 questions, including some that may be unexpected.
People will be asked if they know how to use the computer, if they use the internet and if they communicate via email. This is to profile the nation's computer literacy. In addition, each individual will be asked how he or she commutes to work -- via public transportation or by car.
There are more personal questions as well. Apart from the always sensitive ones that address religious identification, this time interviewers will ask if a person lives in a domestic partnership or in a "classical" marriage, and if the partnership is a same-sex one.
Macedonia is gearing up for its census as well, with a timeline similar to Croatia's. "The initial results will be announced in June 2011, and final results in June 2012," Liljana Kuzmanovska, of the department of statistics, told SETimes. More than 18,500 people will be engaged in the project, which should cost around 14m euros.
Neighbouring Albania planned to hold its census in April, but ended up postponing it recently so as not to overlap with the May local elections. Albania's headcount will span three weeks and involve 12,000 people on the ground. The Roma community requires special attention and a pilot test has been done for them.
Controversy has erupted over the Greek minority in Albania and the policy of Greek diplomatic representatives there. Albanian media has aired video footage of Theodhoro Ikonomus, the Greek consul in Korca, southeastern Albania, calling on people to declare their ethnicity.
"Yes, Greeks exist in Korca. Yes, Vlachs are Greeks. Greeks, don't be afraid of the census, proclaim your real origin," Ikonomus said last month.
The cost of the fieldwork and analysis can be daunting.
Kosovo's assembly decided in 2009 to hold a registration of population, households and properties, from March 31st to April 15th. An official census has not been conducted since 1981.
Arsim Bajram, former minister of public administration, tells SETimes that "this process is a pre-condition for the economic development of Kosovo".
But Marko Jaksic, a Serb from Mitrovica, tells SETimes that "there are no conditions [under which] Serbs should take part."
"I expect that all will participate, but the challenge is that Serbs in northern Kosovo are not ready to accept this process and our institutions. Our hope is that with the support of the EU we will succeed in this regard," Kosovo Minister for Public Administration Edita Tahiri said.
Rifat Blaku, chairman of the Central Registration Commission, says "the process will be managed in line with international standards, and more than 1,460 localities will be visited."
The census in Bosnia and Herzegovina was originally planned for April as well, but looks as though it may be postponed by at least one year, due to various political differences and procedural failures.
The main sticking point delaying this EU-mandated procedure seems to be the lack of agreement among the main political parties in parliament as to the level of significance of data on ethnic, religious and other affiliations on census forms.
This census could be very telling. The last one was conducted in 1991, before the Bosnian conflict, which triggered major ethnic migrations in the years since.
Last year, the Romanian government decided to postpone the population census from March to October 2011 due, in part, to financial reasons. But a second reason is to give experts more time to assess the results of an agricultural census held in December and January.
Not all countries are proceeding with the headcount as planned.
This year's population census is Romania's third since the fall of communism. Over the last two decades, the population decreased by over 1.5 million people. The peak was reached in 1990 when Romania had a population of 23.2 million people, but the 2002 census showed a population of 21.698 million people and the number is expected to decrease.
In October, a total of 130,000 employees will collect information in the field. Vergil Voineagu, head of the National Institute of Statistics, says the main challenge facing authorities this year is tracing people in the countryside, most of whom have emigrated since the 2002 census. An estimated 2 million Romanians are deemed to be living in Italy and Spain alone.
In Montenegro, which broke from its former state union with Serbia and declared independence five years ago, the census is highly politicised.
Professor and political analyst Svetozar Jovicevic explains that pro-Serbian opposition parties, which tried unsuccessfully to block the departure of Montenegro from the union with Serbia, think they will lose influence should the number of Serbs fall.
"This is their main weapon and they are therefore concerned. On the other hand, the ruling parties want to increase the number of citizens who declare themselves as Montenegrins, because this is a confirmation of their political activity," Jovićević told SETimes.
According to the 2003 census, 43% of citizens declared themselves as Montenegrins, 32% as Serbs, 7.8% as Bosniaks, 5% as Albanians, 3.9% as Muslims, 1.1% as Croats, and 0.4% Roma.
Paul Ciocoiu in Bucharest, Jusuf Ramadanovic in Sarajevo, Nedjeljko Rudovic in Podgorica, Linda Karadaku in Tirana, Muhamet Brajshori in Pristina and Klaudia Lutovska in Skopje contributed to this report.
Source: SETimes.com
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