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

I. THE COMPREHENSIVE REWIEV OF THE DATA COLLECTION AND PROCESSING - 11. The control of the reliability of the census

and 3 952 households with heads with agricultural occupations. The findings were published in the series of the Demographic Research Institute. a/ It was also after the census of 1960 that an attempt was made at cross-checking with the data sheets of vital statistics. The accuracy of the data of the microcensus of 1968 were checked by operations of two kinds. One of them was similarly subsequent sampling census taken after the microcensus moment of January 1, 1968, between January 28, 1968 and February 4, 1968. The questionnaire of this operation comprised the family position and the year of the birth of the inhabitants beyond questions related to housing; however, the main subject was presence and absence, the checking of the determination of the categories of population. Namely the microcensus was at the same time the trial calculation of the census of 1970 which was based on new concepts of population. In the second operation the material of the survey of incomes by the Department of Economics was used after the microcensus, in the course of which the most important personal and occupation data were taken again. For this purpose the data of a sample of 19 000 persons were crosschecked on the sheets copied from the material of the two censuses. The criteria under survey were sex, age, family status, branch of national economy, individual occupation, activity and the quality of employment. They were processed by machine, thus testing the operation used in 1970 and to be described hereinafter. The findings were not published. c/ METHODOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF THE POST-ENUMERATION CONTROL OF THE CENSUS OF 1970 The 1/4 per cent area sample and the census based on it as applied in the post-enumeration control of the census of 1970 were described among the sampling methods. The material was designed to be processed electronically by machine. Because of delay owing to lack of capacity the most important results were determined by manual processing. THus the main findings were available earlier. Machine processing became possible only at the end of 1975. Two aspects arise in the examination of the results: the question of the completeness of the census and the accuracy of the declared data. In the former case of completeness the categories of population, affected in various ways by the survey of varying accuracy of present and absent persons, raise problems. The question is complicated by the supplying of the missing data through the control sheets used for the first time in 1970. All this required thorough examination and the individual judgement of cases. In the examination of the accuracy of declaration only such individuals (persons in the sample, dwellings) are to be taken into consideration which are comprised by the census and the postenumeration survey as well. Here the results were exploited by a method accepted all the world over - by so-called "transversal" tables. The side columns of the table contain the census returns, the head columns a/ A korbevallás megbízhatóságának vizsgálatai az 1960. évi népszámlálásnál. (A Központi Statisztikai Hivatal Népességtudományi Kutató Csoportjának közleményei, 3. sz. Budapest, 1964/1. Work of Kálmán Tekse. ) 95