1970 HUNGARIAN CENSUS OF POPULATION Information on the data collection and processing (1977)

I. THE COMPREHENSIVE REWIEV OF THE DATA COLLECTION AND PROCESSING - 4. Notions applied with the population census

- the present population comprises the categories 1-4 (while the categories 5-7 respond to the persons temporarily or steadily absent); - the permanent population is composed of the categories no. 1,, 2., 5. and 6. - the resident population: no. 1., 3., 5. and 7. b/ THE SCHOOL SYSTEM The schedules showing the educational level of the population reflected the educational system being valid at the census moment. It was necessary to do so since recently a number of educational reforms have been executed in Hungary; consequently, the living population may have finished schools in a number of different types of school. In order to ensure the comparison, educational levels of the same degree obtained in different school systems had to be equalized. The rapid technical and scientific development of the last decades has required • in addition to the reforms comprising the entire scope of the education - increasing speciálization. Schooling underwent considerable development, not only from the point of view of the subject-matter of the instruction, but from the aspect of the organization too. According to the demands of the present era, old institutions have been replaced by new ones. Consequently, during a census interval, the number of types and branches of schools to be registered has increased. In the course of the data processing, it has always been difficult to rank the general educational level obtained in ancient types of schools among the up-to-date highly specialized qualifications. Although qualifications obtained in different periods of time may be equalized by means of using the formal criteria of the denomination, as far as its content is concerned, the educational level covers different things in different periods, since the requirements of obtaining an educational level given, are different from those having been valid some twenty years ago. As CQmpared to the former censuses, the questions concerning literacy have been omitted. In Hungary, the illiteracy practically ceased to exist, thus its recording loosed its importance. Instead of this, the question of the school-attendance has obtained an increasing importance. It is an up-to-date problem and much more easily observable from the aspect of the registration. The respective categories used in former censuses ("unable to write or read"; "reads only" or "able to reaci and write without any school-attendance"

) have been ranked among the group of persons who "finished zero class" in the schedules. c/ OCCUPATIONAL NOTIONS The census performed in 1970 pointed to Important changes as far as the economic activity was concerned. Instead of the former distinction according to earners and dependants, for the time being, the active and inactive earners as well as the dependants are shown on the tables. A detailed interpretation of these notions is to be found in the publication entitled "24. Occupational data I." (pp. 711-713.) A further change, as compared to the past, was that pupils participating in the vocational training (formerly: apprentices etc. ) have been included to the active earners in the former censuses, while they are figuring for the time being, among the dependants. 32