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

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION The Hungarian censuses look back upon a past of nearly hundred years. The Central Statistical Office aimed, every time, at fixing the programme and the census techniques on a high level and according to the requirements of information of the respective period. The operations connected with the census of 1970 - which was the eleventh in the series have come practically to the end. Its results have been published - as far as the counties were concerned - in 43 volumes, while the data showing nationwide figures have been published separately. This paper comprises the methodological instructions, going over the preparatory operations, the fixing of the programme, the performing of the registration and the manual and electronic data processing as well as the publication of the data. In doing this, the paper aims at giving a methodological survey complying with the requirements of the data users, institutions and research workers who want to evaluate the census results. Besides, it serves the purposes of the preparation of the next census to take place in 1980, by means of publishing in a single volume, the information content of the former census, and making the experience obtained available for use. By means of the publication of the methodological issues the Hungarian statistical service follows and completes the practice pursued during the former population censuses. The last volumes of the former censuses, when publishing the final data, gave account, at the same time, of the methodological aspects and presented the patterns of the questionaries. During the last decades, the census system to be applied had been generally expounded in articles published in the review entitled "Statisztikai Szemle". As far as the census of the year 1960 is concerned, a separate volume entitled "The recapitulation of the data collection and processing" (in Hungarian) has also been published in 1965, after the accomplishment of the respective activities. The operations connected with the census of 1970 were preceded by sound, complex preparatory activities. During this, the elucidation of a number of methodological problems became necessary. This task was promoted by the experimental micro-census (which had taken place in 1968) and two other small-scale surveys comprising small but contiguous territorial units. In 1970, a number of techniques were applied which may have been considered new in several respects. Let us point at the most important ones: - In addition to the "present" population, several new concepts ("resident" and "permanent" population) have been considered. - The coordination of the registration in the case of persons having double residence. - A detailed survey on the basis of a 25 per cent representativity sample. 5