The 2011 Czech Census

The form for an individual person asks you basic information, marital status, employment, education and mode of transport. If someone is absent, say on holiday, but really lives at the address the form must also be filled out for them. For minors or people not competent to enter into legal acts, the forms will be filled in by their legal guardians, e.g. parents and carers. Same sex couples are recognized. Ethnicity and religious beliefs are included as questions but filling them out is optional. And yes, if you want to write Jedi, you can.

The dwelling form includes houses, flats, rooms in a boarding house and ‘weekend cottages’. The census wants to know purpose, size, location (i.e. which floor if it´s a flat, or how many floors if a house) and something about what type of rooms they are.  It also wants to know about computer ownership. On the second page there is space to list the people in the household and any visitors who are there for this ‘decisive moment’.

For buildings the form asks what type, age, building material, heating and connection there is to sewerage. There are no questions about the value or the contents.

When it comes to recreational properties, the census may be a little more confusing. If a recreational property is occupied at the decisive moment, then this property will be entered on the dwelling questionnaire (the first two questions and the second page) and on the building questionnaire  (the first three questions). In the case of you owning a house with a land registry number (číslo popisné), which you use only for recreation, you enter it into the census because it is a building designated for living but currently unoccupied. For an unoccupied building used for recreation you will fill in only the building questionnaire.

This means that whoever is in the Czech Republic at the time of the census collection should in theory fill in the form. However, a spokesperson from ČSÚ wrote us in an email that they would not be pursuing tourists at “any price”. Hostels, hotels and other types of accommodation will be provided with the forms. The hope is that people will fill them in. For people on short stays, the census will be quite easy as they will only fill in questions 2-6. However, if someone is here for a stay of more than 90 days then ČSÚ will treat this individual as a “citizen” in the sense that they would assume the person has the same obligation.

It is important to remember that the form has to be filled in with a blue or black ball point pen and the census people request that it is not folded. If the name of your town or street contains diacritic markings they should be included and at the top of the form where you fill in your address and that the markings must be within the box.

Census forms can be submitted from the 26th  March. There are three ways to submit them:

Even if this information is useful to the government, people are understandably concerned about the misuse and abuse of this information. The census lists a number of measures by which the information is protected. These include its intention solely for statistical purposes and pledges to secrecy by the commissioners. There are punishments for those who break the laws which pertain to census collection and data protection.

A spokesperson for the census said the results will be made available from the end of 2011.

As ever, we’re keen to read your thoughts and experiences on the census.