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

I. THE COMPREHENSIVE REWIEV OF THE DATA COLLECTION AND PROCESSING - 8. The electronic data processing of the census of 1970

When selecting the basis criteria, certain aspects justified by the theory and practice had to be taken into consideration. The basis criteria had to meet the following requirements: a/ the survey, the coding and the revision should be simple enough (possibly copying) and the code-number should adequately refer to the notion; b/ the basic criterion should refer to a restricted number of possible cases, but it should fill up the decimals of the code positions, i. e. to each number a notion has to be attached; c/ we should have preliminary information at our disposal as to the distribution of the criterion; d/ it should be able to break down the population into characteristic subsets; e/ it should hold a central post in the connections of the criteria (should be indirectly or directly connected to as many criteria as possible); f/ the basis criteria should not show close connections with each other. Starting from the basis criteria defined in this fashion the correction could be performed in a rather simple manner. In want of an appropriate starting basis, each code numbers or criteria could serve as the starting point of the correction. The soundness of the starting point could be decided solely on the basis of the criteria in question. That would have resulted in a more sophisticated, lengthy and less reliable programme. The basis criteria have been selected according to the points of view partly mentioned above. The criteria proposed and accepted are the following: - family status - age - activity - sex. The order of the enumeration pointed, at the same time, to the priorities of the noitons. During the revision and after the punching, the basis criteria selected have been submitted to an extra checking. This operation had to account for the soundness of the starting points of the correction programme. The controlling and correcting activities were performed in the next phases of the programme, by means of using the basis, step by step. The correction of the basis criteria served as the starting point of two other programmes devoted to the final correction of the demographic and occupational criteria. During the further runs, the machine operated again within its own record which means that it is unable to take into consideration for the sake of correction, the code-numbers of other persons (for instance parents, children or other family members). The basis criteria served.further as necessary starting points in the following two segments. The final correction of the demographic criteria By means of the year of birth figuring among the basis criteria it is not difficult to define the possible educational level and the number of the children of certain persons. The clearing up of other errors is feasible under restrictions only, in lack of sufficient basis (for instance the mother-tongue. 71