population
Census surveys have begun
Population, living space, rents, heating, education and employment: data on these topics will be collected throughout Germany in the 2022 census. Photo: Daniel Karmann/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
How does Germany live? This is to be found out with the help of a large survey. For the 2022 census, data is to be collected on the topics of population, living space, rents and education.
The surveys for the 2022 census have started. The government survey of data on the population, living space, rents, heating, education and employment is expected to take around three months.
The publication of all statistics generated from this for the federal and state governments is planned for November 2023, said the President of the Federal Statistical Office, Georg Thiel, on Monday in Berlin.
The 2022 census is not a classic census like the one last held in Germany in 1987. Rather, as was the case with the 2011 census, data that is already available in the administration – for example at the residents’ registration office – is supplemented by the collection of current information.
Around 100,000 interviewers swarm out to interview people where they live. “Be friendly to the survey officers,” appealed the President of the Bavarian State Office for Statistics, Thomas Gößl, to the citizens. The volunteer interviewers performed an important task for the common good. After all, the figures from the census would be used, among other things, to give the administration and those responsible for politics a better basis for planning daycare centers, senior citizens’ facilities and transport infrastructure.
In addition to the interviews, there is also a second survey that deals exclusively with the subject of housing. Many apartment and house owners had already received letters with access codes for an online form in the past few days, combined with a request to provide information on the size of the apartment, the amount of any rental income and the type of heating. The names of the residents are also requested. Thiel tried to dispel privacy concerns. He referred to the so-called return ban. This principle ensures that individual information may neither be sent back to the public bodies from which they originally came nor passed on to other administrative bodies.