The population and housing e-census starts on 7th September. Every Bulgarian citizen can get counted online by themselves. You can count the whole household with a single registration. The system allows also distant counting of elder relatives. ‘E-census is the safest one and we appeal to the Bulgarian citizens to get counted electronically. Filling in the questionnaire will not take more than 20 minutes,’ emphasized in an interview to “24 hours” newspaper NSI President Sergey Tsvetarsky.
The second stage of the process – census with enumerators – is envisaged from 18th September to 3rd October. They will count the dwellings and buildings, as well as the households which have not taken the opportunity for e-census. The Ministry of Healthcare elaborated a special protocol for the process. All enumerators will wear safety means and have the opportunity to vaccinate if willing. The contacts are decreased to the possible minimum.
The first preliminary census data will be released by the end of the year. They will contain the population number and its distribution by some basic indicators. The final data will be released in the second half of 2022.
The questionnaire comprises both questions about the buildings and dwellings, availability of durables of households, and questions about education and marital status, health status, ethnic group, mother tongue and religion of the persons counted. ‘The census is the only source for part of this information. Nowhere are found such data. In case that anybody has an adequate reason not to answer these questions, they have the option to give an answer “I don’t want to answer”, but we appeal to people to answer. They can be sure that their secret will be protected.’ explained Sergey Tsvetarsky. The information that people complete in the questionnaire is individual and is protected by a special law. It cannot be published and it even cannot be used as evidence in the court.
