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

I. THE COMPREHENSIVE REWIEV OF THE DATA COLLECTION AND PROCESSING - 7. The preparation, programme and organization of the data processing

In the case of the census of 1960, the difference of the figures referring to the temporarily present and absent persons amounted to 80 000 or so. A similar magnitude was felt in the census of 1960 as well as in the case of the microcensus connected with the experimental registration performed in 1968, although the survey method was quite different. In 1960, the data of the temporarily and permanently absent people have been registered separately while in 1968 the full material had to be recorded concerning both the present and absent persons. It can be stated that considering the traditional census techniques, the survey of the present and absent population cannot be executed with the same accuracy; that results in a bias of the number of inhabitants, according to the different categories of notions concerning the population. Consequently, the checking and completing of the collected census data is highly necessary from this point of view. On the purpose to the elimination of the insufficiencies, a system of the controlling sheets has been established the first time in 1970. Of each person having double residence or did not abide on the spot where he was permanently registered according to the police form, the census-taker prepared a copy of the control sheet. The control sheet was practically identical with the basic questionary and aimed at the replacing of the persons or the respective data on their permanent or temporary dwelling place. The control sheets filled in on the permanent and temporary residence as well as on the temporary place of abode had to be.matched. The execution took place in decentralized manner. The operation has been performed - with considerable labour input - by the Statistical Directorates of the capital and the counties during February and March 1970. The matching of the control sheets took place in the following working process: - the control sheets filled in on the permanent and temporary residence have been separated; - the control sheets of the persons having temporary residence have been arranged according to their permanent domicile recorded accurately on the form, and have been forwarded to the Statistical Directorates of the respective county (the sheets of the foreigners had to be sent to the central bureau of the census); - the checking had to be performed within the settlement, in the alphabetical order of the family names and surnames. Consequently, the control sheets forwarded from other countries (as well as the sheets referring to the person having temporary residence within the own county) have been arranged according to communities and within this, in the alphabetical order of the names; - then the matching of the sheets followed. The control sheets were considered matched, if both (in exceptional cases, if the person in question abode in a third spot at the census moment, all three) control sheets could be found, and the categories of the population corresponded to each other, as to the presence or absence, to the permanent and temporary registration form; - if the categories did not correspond to each other, according to the institutions, they had to be corrected and this fact adequately recorded; 58